LOFAR AND AFRICA

Daan du Toit

DST – South Africa

ASTRONOMY IN SOUTHERN AFRICA

• South African government has significantly increased science and technology funding

• Prioritized science with a geographical advantage – e.g. astronomy and paleontology

• Aim is to make Southern Africa a hub for Southern Hemisphere astronomy – HESS, SALT, MeerKAT and hopefully SKA and CTA

• DST has allocated R2.3 billion (€228 million) up to 2013 to MeerKAT, SKA site bid and the associated Human Capital Development Programme – Youth into Science and Engineering

ASTRONOMY IN AFRICA

• SKA bid is an African bid – South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Mozambique, Mauritius, Madagascar, Kenya, Zambia, Ghana

• Endorsed by Southern African Development Community

• Astronomy courses started at universities of Nairobi, Antanarivo, Mondlane (Maputo) as a direct result

• Radio telescope in place for a long time in Mauritius

• Africa SKA group looking at building outstations linked to MeerKAT for VLBI in some or all partner states

• Nigeria building a dish

RADIO ASTRONOMY RESERVE

• RA reserve established in the arid Northern Cape

• Protected in terms of the Astronomy Geographic Advantage Act

• MeerKAT site and proposed SKA site• PAPER and C-BASS being constructed

there• First observations with PAPER show very

good environment

MeerKAT

• Specs developed together with Science Advisory Committee, which includes Director of ASTRON

• Aiming at sensitivity, dynamic range and resolution to complement surveys at many wavelengths, including LOFAR

• Good for low surface brightness but with good position resolution and polarization

• First phase aims for 600MHz – 2.4GHz and possibly 8-15GHz

MEERKAT SCIENCE RFP

• Science to start in 2013• Huge response from international scientific

community – may have to group some of the MeerKAT survey proposal teams.

• Proposals received from many institutions including from the following countries:– UK, USA , Australia, Germany, France, Netherlands ,

Canada, Japan, Italy, Ireland, Poland, Russia, Spain, Portugal, India, Mauritius, Sweden, Korea

AFRICAN PARTICIPATION

• Proposals will be consolidated into a smaller number

• About 40 South African and African astronomers from 8 South African universities and 2 NRF national facilities are members of the MeerKAT survey proposal teams.

MeerKAT and LOFAR

• Good opportunities for collaboration on follow-up observations from LOFAR surveys, magnetic field science, HI science, galaxy and radio galaxy science, pulsars and transients

• Several instruments exist for exchange programmes between Netherlands (EU) and South Africa

• Already very good collaboration between ASTRON and South African astronomers on HI science and other MeerKAT science

• LOFAR technology development relevant to MeerKAT and collaboration will be further explored (e.g. data pipelines, calibration)

MeerKAT and VLBI

• Will phase MeerKAT antennas to give an equivalent VLBI antenna of about 100m in diameter

• This will give great sensitivity on the long baselines to Europe and the EVN

• E-connectivity already demonstrated between JIVE and HartRAO. Wide bandwidths will be available to MeerKAT as well

• Connect to proposed VLBI / geodesy outstations across Africa

2009 SKA SARCHI Research Chairs

UniversityResearch Focus for SKA

Research Chair

Stellenbosch UniversityElectromagnetic Systems

and EMI Mitigation for SKA

Rhodes UniversityRA Techniques and

Technologies

University of Cape Town Extragalactic multi-wavelength astronomy

University of the Witwatersrand

Radio Astronomy

University of the Western Cape

Astronomy and Astrophysics

KAT 7

PAPER DEPLOYMENT

PAPER 16 to 32

PAPER Results

Thank you

• Contact details: (South African S&T Representative to the EU)

– daan.dutoit@dst.gov.za

– http://www.esastap.org.za

– +32 2 285 44 74 (T)– +32 47 368 75 14 (M)

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