Updates from SKA construction and an SKA pathfinder: Aperitif.

by Kelley Hess (AMIGA)

Tuesday 15 Apr 2025, 13:15 → 14:15 Europe/Stockholm

FB54 (AlbaNova Main Building)

SKA telescope construction is well underway in both Australia and South Africa: the sites of the future SKA-Low and SKA-Mid arrays.  In parallel, the SKA Regional Center Network (SRCNet) is being developed to support the data exploration, access, analysis, and visualization required by astronomers to achieve full performance of the telescopes.

The Swedish SRC (SWE-SRC) node just achieved v0.1 accreditation.

In the first half of this talk I'll provide an update on SKA construction, the development of SRCNet, and Sweden's contribution.In preparation for SKA, Apertif is one of several large surveys undertaken on SKA pathfinders and precursors that are revealing and preparing the community for the data challenges to come: driving the development of more efficient data reduction pipelines, and data analysis tools. 

In the second half, I'll present the Apertif commensal radio continuum, polarization, and HI spectral line surveys, how they are leading the way for SKA, and exciting recent science results.