A one-day workshop alongside ASI 2022

HPC Workshop on Radio Astronomy Data Analysis in the SKA Era

09:30 - 18:30 IST

on

Friday, March 25, 2022

(Hybrid mode)

Objective of the workshop:

To bring together the scientific community who are interested in High Performance Computing (HPC) relevant to Radio Astronomy Data Analysis in the SKA era as well as through the Pathfinder Telescopes like the uGMRT. This workshop will also explore possible synergies with the ongoing National Supercomputing Mission of the government of India.

Background:

The Square Kilometre Array (SKA), the next generation radio telescope, has completed the detailed design phase, and the construction began from mid-2021. India has made significant contributions during the design phase and has been allocated roles in the construction phase, including a leadership role for the “Observatory Management and Control” work package. Indian astronomers are leading large science project(s) on SKA precursor telescopes, e.g., the MeerKAT Absorption Line Survey (MALS), and to deal with large volumes of data from these telescopes we have to set up a PB-scale data processing, archiving and distribution facility. Furthermore, plans for a SKA regional data centre in India are being developed, along with growing the activities of the scientific community. To increase the participation of the scientific community in the SKA observatory, it is critical to grow the expertise in handling huge volumes of data and analyze them to extract the desired science.

Rationale:

The SKA-1 data analysis will be a paradigm shift from the current state of analysis pipelines with telescopes like the uGMRT, JVLA, etc. The volume of data with the SKA-1 phase makes it necessary to analyze the data remotely in a HPC environment. This workshop is timely to explore and disseminate the essential background and prospects of such HPC tools and feasibility in establishing a synergy with the ongoing National Supercomputing Mission. We intend to use the 2022 ASI SKA India workshop as a major platform for doing this. The following are the main goals for our workshop:

(i) To disseminate widely the status of the SKA construction phase, and India's projected role in the same -- over a 10-year window of 2021-2030.

(ii) To update the SKA science case from India, and review science/technical efforts by the Indian community in using / with the SKA pathfinders and precursors, with special emphasis on HPC radio astronomy data analysis.

(iii) To explore synergy with the NSM goals and collaboration with its growing community.

(iv) To attract and familiarize the technical community and industry partners with the prospects of HPC applications related to the Radio Astronomy data analysis in the SKA era.

Participants: Expected ~150 participants including

scientific & technical persons from the institutions who are already involved or interested in the SKA related activities,
scientific & technical persons from the institutions who are already involved or interested in the NSM related activities,
participants from the industries who have interest in HPC related activities in SKA or NSM,
a few key members from the international SKA Observatory, as resource persons.

Young students/postdocs who are interested in the SKA are strongly encouraged to apply for this workshop..

Schedule of the workshop:

ASI 2022 Workshop 2: HPC Workshop on Radio Astronomy Data Analysis in the SKA Era

March 25, 2022 (Friday) 09:30 - 18:30 IST

09:30 - 11:15 : Session 1 (Chair: Yogesh Wadedekar)

09:30 - 09:50 : "Square Kilometre Array - the international project" by Yashwant Gupta, NCRA-TIFR, Pune

09:50-10:00 : “Activities under SKA India Consortium" by Tirthankar RoyChoudhury, NCRA-TIFR, Pune

10:00 - 10:50 : “Overview of Radio Interferometric Data Analysis and Compute Needs” by Urvashi Rao, NRAO, USA

10:50 - 11:15 : “CAPTURE: A continuum imaging pipeline for the uGMRT” by Ruta Kale, NCRA-TIFR, Pune

11:15 - 11:45 : Tea Break

11:45 - 12:50 : Session 2 (Chair: Nirupam Roy)

11:45 - 12:20 : “MALS pipeline (spectral line)” by Neeraj Gupta, IUCAA, Pune