SKA Working Group 2 Level-1 Science: Transient Phenomena

The first unbiased survey of the variable/transient radio sky at centimeter wavelengths.

Additional notes: WG2 Bologna ; WG2 pre-Groningen ; WG2 post-Groningen

HARD 'NO' for China: No long baselines


SKA Designs (requirements matrix)


Red=All agreed that it fails; Dark Blue=some say it fails; Pink=most say it fails.
Specification Requirement  China  Europe  India  Ozlens  Ozcyli  USA  Canada 
A/Tsys 20000 35000 10500 20000 20000 20000 20000 20000
FOV (deg2) 1 0.005 1 1 3.6 1 (8) 1 1 (FPA)
#beams 1 1 8 1 2 8 (64) 1 350
beam separation 60 90 150 40x1 1
#subarrays >~10 few many many many many many few?
response time <~10 100 <1 60 60 60 60 100
Freq range 0.5->15 0.3-6.0 0.15-1.5 0.15-10.0 0.1-5.0 0.10-9.0 0.15-34.0 0.1-22.0
Corr Bandwith 0.5 + freq/2 ? 0.2 3.0 2.4 3.2 4.0
#spectral channels 2048x~1Hz 2x4096 2x4096 2x4096 16384
sampling time 5 micro-s short
max baseline 3000 300 2000 3000 10000 5000
50% area baseline 50 100 4 3 35
Tb sensitivity ? 1 1 0.7 1
#independent IFs >10 3 4 4 4
Max sep. of IFs 9GHz 1 full band full band
Spatial DNR 1e+06 1e+05 1e+06 1e+06 1e+06 1e+06
Spectral DNR high
Polarization DNR 1e+04 1e+04 1e+04
#spatial pixels 1e+08 1e+08 1e+08 5e+10
Special care with RFI excision
Special tied sub-arrays
Special transient buffer
Special Instantaneous access to FOV
Special GP at full sensitivity
Special dt x df ~ 1