Australia’s CSIRO, the Pawsey Supercomputing Centre and the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) are part of an international consortium that has completed a five-year effort to design supercomputing infrastructure that will help process the masses of data generated by the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) project.
Australia was one of seven nations to sign a treaty in Rome this week, to establish the intergovernmental organisation that will deliver the world’s largest radio telescope, the Square Kilometre Array (SKA).
The Australian component of the world’s largest radio telescope will require 65,000 optical fibre cables to transport the vast quantities of data it will generate.
Work on the Square Kilometre Array radio telescope is expected to produce a construction-ready design by the end of next year, according to Australian SKA project director David Luchetti. Construction is due to start in 2018.
The Western Australian government has announced $26 million in funding over the next five years for the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) in Perth.