“Cosmos is the last frontier”: A bit about the IT infrastructure of the fastest radio telescope ASKAP
In 2012, SKA Organization announced its intention to build the world's largest radio telescope, Square Kilometer Array (SKA). It was decided to divide the working part of the installation into two: one to be placed in South Africa, the other in Australia.
As part of this project, an array of low-frequency aperture antennas (from 350 MHz to 14 GHz) was created in Australia, called ASKAP (Australian Square Kilometer Array Pathfinder). The task of the radio interferometer is to help understand how the universe developed in the first billion years of its existence. Therefore, today we would like to talk about the tasks and principles of operation of the radio telescope.
/ photo Australian SKA Office CC
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Today in Australia already placed 36 plates ASKAP. This telescope is much more powerful than other modern solutions: for example, its sensitivity (by 25%) and resolution (8 times) exceed those of the LOFAR radio interferometer. Moreover, he can scan the sky 135 times faster. This is what the ASKAP complex from the satellite looks like .
Radio telescopes use special cameras that pick up weak radio waves from space. Such cameras are able to “capture” only a small part of the celestial sphere, which complicates the task of exploring large parts of the sky. Therefore, innovative phased arrays with a wide angle of view were developed for the ASKAP radio telescope. This is the first time that this technology has been used in astronomy.
Each grid is made of 188 receivers located in a staggered manner. Next to the receivers are low-noise amplifiers that amplify the usually weak radio signals. These components are covered in an airtight case, installed in the focus of each of the ASKAP plates.
A total of phased arrays can work with 36 individual beams, allowing you to get a viewing angle of 30 square degrees. During the operation, the telescope has already shown its ability to function as an autonomous astronomical instrument.
The data that comes in to phased antenna arrays represent a real “fire hose” with information. The CSIRO blog noted that ASKAP generates about 5.2 terabytes of data per second. The problem is that it is more than the width of the channel to the supercomputer in the city of Perth and the amount of disk space available there.
/ photo Australian SKA Office CC
“In the case of classic telescopes such as Parks and Narrabri, you collect data, archive and store“ forever, ” says David McConnell, a systems scientist. “This means that as new analysis methodologies emerge, researchers can go back to old data and conduct repeated experiments.”
However, there is a slightly different situation. The data center can not store as much "raw" data coming from 36 antennas, so they undergo certain transformations. Scientists turn data into images that enter the storage system through a chain of high-speed electronics.
Today, data is written to disk at a speed of 22 megabytes per second. The reduction in the amount of information is huge. Scientists are planning to create software that will allow real-time determination of which images are worth keeping and which ones are not.
To manage this amount of data, researchers chose solutions based on SGI InfiniteStorage and SGI UV 2000 technologies. SGI InfiniteStorage is a data storage and management system that can handle 100 petabytes of information at a time. The storage system also gains additional flexibility using energy-saving SGI MAID caching technology.
It automatically stops the rotation of the hard drives, if they have not been accessed for a long time. Also, this environment is integrated with a 40-petabyte tape library, which creates the possibility of expanding the 100-petabyte system for managing a hierarchical information storage structure (HSM).
With regard to technology SGI UV 2000, it allows for the analysis and visualization of large sets of data. Working as a set of analyzing devices, SGI UV 2000 is used for preliminary data processing, which is addressed by a number of scientific applications.
Scientists note that all the developments obtained during the work of the ASKAP telescope on the WALLABY project will be used by researchers from the Netherlands, Canada and the USA to develop a phased array of a larger radio interferometer. Moreover, they note that this work will allow the use of phased arrays in other areas of life, for example, wireless technologies or areas of medical physics.
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As part of this project, an array of low-frequency aperture antennas (from 350 MHz to 14 GHz) was created in Australia, called ASKAP (Australian Square Kilometer Array Pathfinder). The task of the radio interferometer is to help understand how the universe developed in the first billion years of its existence. Therefore, today we would like to talk about the tasks and principles of operation of the radio telescope.
/ photo Australian SKA Office CC')
Today in Australia already placed 36 plates ASKAP. This telescope is much more powerful than other modern solutions: for example, its sensitivity (by 25%) and resolution (8 times) exceed those of the LOFAR radio interferometer. Moreover, he can scan the sky 135 times faster. This is what the ASKAP complex from the satellite looks like .
Radio telescopes use special cameras that pick up weak radio waves from space. Such cameras are able to “capture” only a small part of the celestial sphere, which complicates the task of exploring large parts of the sky. Therefore, innovative phased arrays with a wide angle of view were developed for the ASKAP radio telescope. This is the first time that this technology has been used in astronomy.
Each grid is made of 188 receivers located in a staggered manner. Next to the receivers are low-noise amplifiers that amplify the usually weak radio signals. These components are covered in an airtight case, installed in the focus of each of the ASKAP plates.
A total of phased arrays can work with 36 individual beams, allowing you to get a viewing angle of 30 square degrees. During the operation, the telescope has already shown its ability to function as an autonomous astronomical instrument.
Too much data does not happen.
The data that comes in to phased antenna arrays represent a real “fire hose” with information. The CSIRO blog noted that ASKAP generates about 5.2 terabytes of data per second. The problem is that it is more than the width of the channel to the supercomputer in the city of Perth and the amount of disk space available there.
/ photo Australian SKA Office CC“In the case of classic telescopes such as Parks and Narrabri, you collect data, archive and store“ forever, ” says David McConnell, a systems scientist. “This means that as new analysis methodologies emerge, researchers can go back to old data and conduct repeated experiments.”
However, there is a slightly different situation. The data center can not store as much "raw" data coming from 36 antennas, so they undergo certain transformations. Scientists turn data into images that enter the storage system through a chain of high-speed electronics.
Today, data is written to disk at a speed of 22 megabytes per second. The reduction in the amount of information is huge. Scientists are planning to create software that will allow real-time determination of which images are worth keeping and which ones are not.
To manage this amount of data, researchers chose solutions based on SGI InfiniteStorage and SGI UV 2000 technologies. SGI InfiniteStorage is a data storage and management system that can handle 100 petabytes of information at a time. The storage system also gains additional flexibility using energy-saving SGI MAID caching technology.
It automatically stops the rotation of the hard drives, if they have not been accessed for a long time. Also, this environment is integrated with a 40-petabyte tape library, which creates the possibility of expanding the 100-petabyte system for managing a hierarchical information storage structure (HSM).
With regard to technology SGI UV 2000, it allows for the analysis and visualization of large sets of data. Working as a set of analyzing devices, SGI UV 2000 is used for preliminary data processing, which is addressed by a number of scientific applications.
Scientists note that all the developments obtained during the work of the ASKAP telescope on the WALLABY project will be used by researchers from the Netherlands, Canada and the USA to develop a phased array of a larger radio interferometer. Moreover, they note that this work will allow the use of phased arrays in other areas of life, for example, wireless technologies or areas of medical physics.
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Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/321126/
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