[AstroNet] SPECIAL EDITION NEWSLETTER FROM SKA SOUTH AFRICA - WHY SOUTH AFRICA OFFERS AN OUSTANDING SOLUTION FOR THE SKA

[Marina Joubert]

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June/July 2011 Special Edition  
 

 <http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/14/01.php> Location, location,
location - South Africa's SKA site is best of both worlds
 

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	The candidate SKA site in South Africa has the double advantage of
being both remote and accessible for scientists and engineers. The Karoo
site is scientifically excellent and very accessible to the world-class
academic centres of Stellenbosch, Grahamstown and Cape Town. Its geographic
location relative to Europe is another significant advantage. Telescopes in
the Karoo can see the same sky as their counterparts in Europe. This makes
it ideal for very long baseline interferometry. Read on
<http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/14/01.php> 
 

 <http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/14/02.php> Making the most of
MeerKAT
 

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	South African infrastructure means the first SKA phase is well
underway. The response to MeerKAT by the international radio astronomy
community is a signal of approval for South Africa's ability to host the
biggest and most important science facilities. Read on
<http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/14/02.php> 
 

 <http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/14/03.php> It doesn't get much
quieter than this
 

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	South Africa's proposed site for the SKA has been confirmed as one
of the quietest places on Earth. Recent measurements of radio frequency
interference, conducted by the international SKA consortium, confirmed the
site's extremely low occurrence of radio frequency interference. Read on
<http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/14/03.php> 
 

Karoo i <http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/14/04.php> nfrastructure
ready for the SKA
 

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	The Karoo doesn't just have the radio silence required to host the
world's most ambitious radio astronomy telescope. It also has the
infrastructure to power the SKA, analyse and deliver the data, support its
scientists and enable world-class science at the lowest cost. Read on
<http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/14/04.php> 
 

 <http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/14/05.php> PAPER demonstrates
suitability of SA site
 

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	Further evidence of the Karoo's suitability for next-generation
radio astronomy comes from the successful deployment of the PAPER project on
the South African site selected as a candidate for the SKA. PAPER - the
Precision Array to Probe the Epoch of Re-ionization - is a radio
interferometer, a system of radio telescopes linked to create one larger
telescope. Read on <http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/14/05.php> 
 

 <http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/14/06.php> C-BASS eye on the
southern sky
 

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	The proposed SKA site in South Africa's Karoo desert is
demonstrating its next-generation radio astronomy credentials as the
location for the southern hemisphere component of the multinational C-BASS
project. C-BASS is the C-Band All Sky Survey, which will map the
polarisation of galactic radio emissions from the Milky Way. Read on
<http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/14/06.php> 
 

 <http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/14/07.php> Moore for less
 

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	African electronic engineers from the MeerKAT and SKA projects are
at the forefront of digital signal processing which drives the next
generation of radio telescopes.The innovative ROACH board is an electronic
building block which increases computing capacity while reducing costs,
making it ubiquitous in new astronomy instrumentation. Read on
<http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/14/07.php> 
 

 <http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/14/08.php> Top astronomy talent
lights up African SKA bid
 

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	Some of the world's most distinguished radio astronomers and
cosmologists have taken up key academic posts dedicated to the African SKA
project. Four of the five new university SKA research chairs have been
filled with professors from the UK, South Africa, Italy and Canada. Read on
<http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/14/08.php> 
 

 <http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/14/09.php> Researcher response to
MeerKAT demonstrates SKA potential
 

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	The overwhelming response by researchers to MeerKAT has demonstrated
South Africa's capacity to host and support world-class astronomy projects.
"We knew that if we built it they would come," said Prof Justin Jonas, the
SKA Africa associate director for science and engineering. "And five years
before MeerKAT is finished we have already allocated 43 000 hours of
observing time." Read on <http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/14/09.php> 
 

 <http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/14/10.php> A new generation of
astronomers emerges in Africa
 

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	The South African SKA Project has awarded 293 grants and
scholarships since its human capital development programme was started in
2005, substantially boosting Africa's capacity to design, build, operate and
upgrade astronomy facilities, to carry out astronomy and instrumentation
research and to participate in the SKA. Read on
<http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/14/10.php> 
 

 <http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/14/11.php> Karoo workshop boosts
astronomy capacity in Africa
 

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	African and global collaboration in the training of future
astronomers on the continent was the focus of a three-day workshop, held
during May 2011 at South Africa's proposed SKA site in the country's
Northern Cape Province. Having the workshop in the Karoo gave participants
the opportunity to see the KAT-7 array and other scientific experiments that
have already been installed in the area. Read on
<http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/14/11.php> 
 

 <http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/14/12.php> VLBI network to be
deployed across Africa
 

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	An African radio telescope network would fill in a major gap in the
global VLBI network and that is what South Africa and its SKA partner
countries are working towards. Such a network will also boost engineering
and science skills development across the continent. Read on
<http://www.ska.ac.za/newsletter/issues/14/12.php> 
Printed copies of the newsletter are available. To order, please send your
request to Marina Joubert <mailto:marina at southernscience.co.za> .

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