[ASA] Save the dates: VLBI in the SKA Era (14-18 February 2022)

[Heald, George (S&A, Kensington WA)]

We are pleased to announce an upcoming virtual symposium entitled “VLBI in the SKA Era”, to take place from 14-18 February 2022. Please mark these dates in your calendar and share this announcement with your colleagues! There will be no registration fee, and participants will be able to apply for accessibility grants. Further details and a registration link will be shared soon.


Motivation: Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) is essential to enable high-impact radio astronomy science capability, including radio imaging at sub-arcsecond resolution, astrometric measurements, and geodesy. Each of the two telescopes within the Square Kilometre Array (SKA1-LOW and SKA1-MID) is by itself relatively compact, but will collectively form the cores of a powerful new VLBI network that will be developed by leveraging existing engineering, networking, computational and scientific VLBI expertise. This symposium will explore how we will transition to the SKA-VLBI era, including the development of pathfinder VLBI networks and new technologies; data distribution, reduction, and management approaches; and the emergence of compelling new science goals. The following highlight topics are planned for inclusion:

  *   Historical context, lessons learned from the establishment of new VLBI networks;

  *   Overviews of SKA1-LOW and SKA1-MID and their planned VLBI capability;

  *   How SKA will operate for VLBI observations in practice;

  *   Status of major current and future VLBI telescopes and networks relevant to SKA-era VLBI;

  *   New technology innovations relevant to SKA-era VLBI (e.g. beam forming, flexible backends, timing and data transport);

  *   Challenges and emerging solutions for calibration and imaging;

  *   Data transport and management, the Big Data challenge, and inclusion of SKA-VLBI in the SKA Regional Centre network;

  *   Innovative astrophysical science goals for new and future VLBI networks, on the pathway toward SKA Key Science Projects; and

  *   Non-astronomy applications for VLBI networks before and into the SKA era.


On behalf of the Scientific Organising Committee (SOC),

George Heald (CSIRO), SOC chair


SOC members:

Tao An (SHAO, China)

Olga Bayandina (JIVE, the Netherlands)

Tyler Bourke (SKAO, UK)

Roger Deane (University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa)

Adam Deller (Swinburne University, Australia)

Simon Ellingsen (University of Tasmania, Australia)

Cristina Garcia-Miro (Yebes Observatory OAN/IGN, Spain)

George Heald (CSIRO, Australia) [chair]

Hideyuki Kobayashi (NAOJ, Japan)

Preeti Kharb (NCRA, India)

Leah Morabito (Durham University, UK)

Maria Rioja (ICRAR/UWA & CSIRO, Australia; and OAN, Spain)

Dana Simard (Caltech, USA)

Bong Won Sohn (KASI, Korea)

Tiziana Venturi (INAF, Italy)

Aletha de Witt (HartRAO, South Africa)



George Heald (he/him)

CSIRO Senior Principal Research Scientist

ATNF Science Team Leader

W https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/YDApCnx1jni755lMrc9KGTb?domain=people.csiro.au

E george.heald at csiro.au T +61 8 6436 8758

26 Dick Perry Avenue, Kensington WA 6151, Australia
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