Observing the sky with MeerKAT

Kurt van der HeydenOn behalf of:

MeerKAT & Deep Continuum team

What is MeerKAT?

• Countries shortlisted to host the SKA: South Africa and Australia

• Both countries are building Pathfinders

• South Africa’s Pathfinder is called MeerKAT and will be located in the Karoo desert

Candidate South African SKA site (along with some locals)

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MeerKAT Overview• Most sensitive centimetre wavelength instrument in

the southern hemisphere• MeerKAT will be used in remote observing mode• Fast dedicated fiber link from Karoo to Cape Town

completed by mid 2010• MeerKAT Operations and Science Centre in Cape

Town (Site selection underway)

Amsterdam

Rome

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Karoo Site

Karoo Astronomy Reserve

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• Close cooperation with broadcast and telecom operators during drafting of the Act

• Protects radio and optical astronomy

• Minister has broad powers

Karoo Astronomy Reserve

System Properties

Roll out schedule

KAT

Meer KAT

MeerKAT

Phases

• central Gaussian core:

• dispersion 300 m, max baseline ~1 km

• Gaussian outer component:

• dispersion 2.5 km, max baseline ~8 km

• Both components random 2D distribution

Array Configuration

Reference design :

1 km

8 km diameter

5 km diameter1 km

shortest baseline 20mlongest baseline of central

array 8 km

Poi

nt s

ourc

e se

nsiti

vity Sensitivities other telescopes

according to their exposure calculators

MeerKAT

Col

umn

dens

ity s

ensi

tivity

Sensitivities other telescopesaccording to their exposure

calculators

MeerKAT

courtesy E. de Blok

PSF plots for δ = −30o; major-axis cross section denoted by solid line, minor axis-section denoted by dotted line

courtesy B. Frank

PSF (dec = -30)

t=8h, δ=-30°

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weighted uv distribution

-100

-100

100

arcsec

30-30

-30

30

arcsec

-8 km 8 km

8 km

-8 km

-2 km

-2 km

-2 km 2 km

weighted beam

Weights & Beams

courtesy B. Frank

Sensitivity

• Low column density HI associated with the Cosmic Web and galaxy environments

• Ultra-deep narrow-field HI survey out to z=1.4 using gravitational lens amplification

• High spatial dynamic range HI imaging of 1000 galaxies

• Ultra-deep narrow-field continuum surveys down to micro-jansky detection limits

• Mapping magnetic fields in clusters

• All-sky continuum survey at 600 MHz

• Pulsar timing and monitoring

• SNR detection and GRB follow-up

• OH mega-masers and Zeeman splitting

• Galactic gas dynamics and magnetic fields

MeerKAT Science: L & S Band

MeerKAT Science: X & Ku-band

• All-sky (??) continuum survey at 8 GHz• Detection of CO lines at high redshift (z>6)• Mapping of S-Z clusters• Transients sources in the Galactic centre

• Observing time split between the Key Projects (~75%) and “normal” proposals (~25%)

• Call for Key Project proposals : deadline 15 March 2010

• Open access

• Key Project teams expected to contribute to pipelines, simulations etc

• SA SKA will support Key Projects in SA with postdocs, students

Call for Proposals

Tier-1: 1000 square degrees to 5µJy rms ; possible fields VISTA-VIKING and KIDS fields. large-scale structure of the Universe at z ~1; Possibly combine UV data with EMU. Time estimate: 1250 hours

Tier-2: 35 square degrees to 1µJy (rms); possible fields Elais-S1 (0037-43), XMMLSS (0218-05), ECDFS (0332-27) and COSMOS (1000+02). sensitive to starbursts of 100 M yr−1 at z ~4 and SCUBA-type galaxies with > 500 M yr−1 up to z > 7. Time estimate: 1050 hours

Tier-3: A single pointing to 0.1µJy (rms), possibly over Chandra-Deep-Field South - push the telescope to its limit and studies of star-formation and AGN activity to levels

Continuum ProposalCo-Pi’s K. vd Heyden & M. Jarvis

• To trace the evolution of strongly star-forming galaxies from z~6 to the present day, and quiescent star forming systems from z=1-2, using a wavelength unbiased by dust or molecular emission.• To trace the evolution of super-massive black holes throughout the history of the Universe, and understand their relationship to star-formation.• assess the AGN mechanical feedback and environmental impact on the intergalactic medium• To explore an uncharted region of observational parameter space

Some key Science goals

• Identify rare or specific populations (through techniques involving radio spectral index measurement?)

• Explore and develop techniques for extracting the maximum information from deep and potentially confused radio images.

Additional Science goals

AGN & Blackholes: Michael Brown, Anton Koekemoer, Somak Raychaudhury, Encarni Romero, Philip Best, Garret Cotter, Raffaella Morganti, Isabella Prandoni, Andrew Hopkins, Catherine Cress, Martin Hardcastle, Edo Ibar, Matt Jarvis

Galaxy Clusters: Marcus Brüggen, Somak Raychaudhury, Ian Smail, Jim Geach, Malcolm Bremer, Anna Scaife, Anton Koekemoer, Catherine Cress, Ilani Loubser, Martin Hardcastle, Nadeem Oozeer, Matt Jarvis

SF & SFH: Sung(eun) Kim, Stuart Lumsden, Philip Best, Isabella Prandoni, Andrew Hopkins,CatherineCress, Rob Ivison, Anton Koekemoer, Anna Scaife, Matt Jarvis

Galaxy Evolution: Loretta Dunne, Malcolm Bremer, Benne Holwerda, Chris Conselice, Ilani Loubser, Chris Pearson, Ian Smail, Anton Koekemoer, Jim Geach, Andrew Hopkins, Michael Brown, Rob Ivison, Edo Ibar, Matt Jarvis

High z Radio Galaxies: Girish Beeharry, Huub Rottgering, Philip Best, Anton Koekemoer, Chris Conselice, Catherine Cress, Rob Ivison, Hans-Rainer Kloeckner, Edo Ibar, Matt Jarvis

Cosmology: Girish Beeharry, Mathew Smith, David Bacon, Yabebal Tadesse, Roy Maartens, FilipeAbdalla, Marco Regis, Renee Hlozek, Catherine Cress, Matt Jarvis

The Polarized Sky: Richard Battye, Ian Browne, Neal Jackson

Transients: Patrick Woudt, Michael Bietenholz

Science Teams

Commissioning: Marcus Brueggen, Martin Hardcastle, Nadeem Oozeer, Rob Beswick, Viral Parekh, Deb Shepherd, Glenn White

Skills transfer and development: Bruce Bassett, Catherine Cress, Garret Cotter, Girish Beeharry, Renee Kraan-Korteweg, Matt Jarvis, Isabella Prandoni, Roy Marten, Matt Smith, Yabebal, Renee Hlozek, Nadeem Oozeer, Michael Garrett

Software, pipeline and simulations: Jose Afonso, Marcus Brüggen, Richard Willman, Nic Walton, Mike Irwin, Eduardo Gonzalez-Solares, Anna Scaife, Hans-Rainer Kloeckner, Anton Koekemoer, Yabebal Tadesse, Catherine Cress, Mark Lacy, Rob Ivison, Rob Beswick, Glenn White, Filipe Abdalla, Anthony Smith, Seb Oliver, Bradley Frank, Rob Ivison, Edo Ibar, Anna Scaife. Viral Parekh, Ian Stewart, Steve Rawlings

Survey strategy and field selection: Matt Jarvis, Michael Brown, Mattia Vaccari, Steve Maddox, Jose Afonso, DimitraRigopoulou, Rob Ivison, Anton Koekemoer, Isabella Prandoni

MeerKAT-EMU-APERTIF-Lofar collaboration: Ray Norris, Roy Booth, Huub Rottgering, Matt Jarvis, Anton Koekemoer, Glenn White, Philip Best, Andrew Hopkins

Salt & other wavelength collaboration: Encarni Romero, Alexei Knaizev, Benne Holwerda, Anton Koekemoer, Loretta Dunne, Nic Walton, Mike Irwin, Eduardo Gonzalez-Solares, Glenn White, Seb Oliver, Chris Pearson, Matt Jarvis, Petri Vaissanen, Kurt van der Heyden, Nicola Loaring

Multi-wavelength synergies: Manda Banerji, Stephen Serjeant, Mattia Vaccari, Michael Brown, Nicholas Seymour, Anton Koekemoer, Loretta Dunne, Girish Beeharry, Nic Walton, Mike Irwin, Eduardo Gonzalez-Solares, Mathew Smith, DimitraRigopoulou, Ilani Loubser, Chris Conselice, Philip Best, Anthony Smith, Michael Garrett, Kristen Coppin, Seb Oliver, RaffaellaMorganti, Isabella Prandoni, Andrew Hopkins, Rob Ivison, Chris Pearson, Anna Scaife, Matt Jarvis

Data Archive & VO: Nic Walton, Ian Stewart, Encarni Romero, Mark Lacy

Technical Teams

MeerKAT

Sensitivities

Borrowed from

Norris et al

MeerKAT ASKAP

Unexplored territory

????

Continuum Surveys - Complimentarity

EMU + MeerKAT:• Combine UV data for 1000 sq deg (5 uJy) ??

LOFAR + MeerKAT (+ Apertif?):• Some overlap around equatorial region, ~20-30 deg??

MeerKAT + EMU + LOFAR (Apertif?)Data analysis (interferometry techniques etc)Software – data simulation, modeling, source confusion algorithms,

source identification & paramertirasationOptimisation of commensal observations Data storage, Joint source catalogues/databasesInterchange/sharing of expertise (staff, PDR, students) & resources?

• In 2005 the South African SKA Project initiated a targeted “Youth into Science and Engineering Programme” to develop highly skilled young scientists and engineers.

• The programme offers comprehensive bursaries to students in engineering, mathematics, physics and astronomy at undergraduate and postgraduate level.

• To date supported: >80 postgraduate students, 11 postdocs, 40 undergraduate students

• 5 SKA Research Chairs awarded (3 Science, 2 Technical) -funding for 15-year positions to build additional SKA-related research groups

Human Capacity

• THINGS: ~500 h

• VLA B, C and D on 34 galaxies

• per galaxy:

• 7.5h in B

• 2.5h in C

• 1.5h in D

• How does MeerKAT compare

MeerKAT THINGS(De Blok et al)

• Detailed maps of nearby galaxies can be obtained in same time and ~same sensitvity as VLA-B array observation, but with the C & D short baselines (and more) included

MeerKAT “Super” THINGS

Since the HI signal is weak, we use independent measurements of galaxy z before stacking:

• STEP 1: extract spectra using known positions and z (optical spectra)

• STEP 2: Using known z values, shift all lines to common channel

• STEP 3: Co-add spectra

Deep HI Survey(S-L. Blyth & B. Holwerda)

S1: 3 month, single pointing S3: 1 year, single pointing

Quick Comparison at z=0.4

ThunderKAT

MeerKAT Transients Key Science ProjectCo-PIs: Patrick Woudt (UCT) & Rob Fender (Southampton)

Astrophysics of accretion-induced relativistic outflows

Radio transients: - microquasars- complete census of LMXBs in the Galactic Bulge (population synthesis)- cataclysmic variables as jet sources- Extragalactic transients (ULXs)- Gamma-ray bursts- (obscured) radio SNe

ThunderKAT

The Hunt for Dynamic and Explosive Radio Transientswith MeerKAT

Global transient network of SKA precursors/pathfinders

Complementary approach: - Survey of the Galactic Bulge (census of faint LMXBs) and local Volume Galaxies- Monitoring of known sources- Commensal transient detection in other MeerKAT surveys- Target of Opportunity follow-up (MeerKAT, LOFAR, ASKAP)

MeerKAT/ThunderKAT

LOFAR/Transients KSP

ASKAP/VAST

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Dish Fabrication Facility

KAT-7 dish mould assembly

25At Karoo site

KAT-7 dish mould

Resin infusion

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Steel backing structure

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Completed reflector

30mould ~0.5mm rms: ~15 GHz

First KAT-7 antenna

July 2009

Then there were five

3 weeks ago

Is it real or is it cardboard?

Rob & Patrick (Feb 2010)

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