SUMMARY OF FACILITIES MEETING - FEB 4 2005
   RADIO & MM WAVEBANDS  (roughly 100 MHz - 100 GHz) 

At centimetre wavelengths the long term goal is the SKA. However, the
time-frame for the full SKA to be built is beyond the Decade Plan 
presently in preparation. Therefore, it is critical that we must map out
the best path to progress to the SKA from the radio facilities operational
now and over the next decade. At every point along the path the facilities
available must continue to answer the important scientific questions and to
build on Australia's strengths in the design, construction and operation of
radiotelescopes. 

For millimetre wavelengths, Australia has an important role to play over
the next few years, before the commencement of operations at ALMA, which
will then be the dominant telescope in that band. 

Developments over the next decade must stimulate the continued training of
engineers and astronomers capable of building and using these facilities,
through both Universities and the National Facility.

The plan is necessarily more precise for the earlier part of the decade but
throughout it aims to keep Australia well positioned to be a significant
contributor to the international SKA project. 

The radiotelescope which will answer many of the major science questions
for the next decade is the SKA Pathfinder, planned to be approximately
10% of the collecting area of the complete SKA. While it is not yet
precisely defined what this instrument will be, it is anticipated that it
will be fully-funded in Australia, for operation as a National Facility. 

The question of telescope access must be addressed for future international 
collaboative projects. The issue will arise once ALMA becomes operational
and will also be a consideration for the SKA. The preferred option is to
maintain the radio astronomy principal that the best use of facilities
comes from an open competitive process of peer review for the best science
projects, rather than a system of  guaranteed time based on funding of the
facility. This is not how major optical/IR facilities operate. A procedure
to negotiate some intermediate protocol, perhaps incorporating reciprocal
access, must be developed. 

While the general specifications for the SKA are already known and the
science to be explored requires an instruments with a large collecting
area, large fractional bandwidth and a large field of view, the details of
the antenna elements remain uncertain. Current designs are likely to
comprise a large number of small antenna elements distributed over a large
geographical area. High speed data transmission over large distances and
large digital signal processing capacity will be essential and existing
super-computing facilities are being developed as forerunners.  

The development of radio facilities over the decade can be described in
three overlapping phases.  Each is necessary for the next, to provide the
infrastructure and technical base and to grow the community of engineers
and expert users. The science that will be done with the facilities
described below is wide-ranging and of high impact, including structure and
evolution of HI, detailed measure of cosmic magnetism, time variable
phenomena, test of strong field gravity via pulsar timing arrays,  
chemical evolution of the Galaxy, and an experiment to measure dark energy. 


Phase 1.  Completion of current upgrade projects
================================================
The current facilities are principally the ATNF Telescopes (ATCA, Parkes and
Mopra) and the University telescopes of Molonglo-University of Sydney,
Mopra-UNSW and the University of Tasmania. There are strong science
programs at all these facilities, which are currently funded through a
mixture of ARC, Govt (CSIRO) and MNRF programs. The principal capabilities
and upgrades are: 

a) ATCA 
Fully equipped with mm-receivers to operate at 12 and 3 mm bands.
Broadband correlator upgrade, which is developing design and fabrication
techniques for future large FX correlators. The correlator will enhance the
bandwidth and sensitivity of the Compact Array. 

b) Parkes
Full suite of receivers, including 6 GHz FPA to add to 21cm multibeam system.
Continued support of pulsar timing projects with specialist backends.
Valued as large-scale survey instrument.

c) Mopra
On-the-fly mapping for large field-of-view imaging capability.
8GHz correlator nearing completion.

d) SKAMP - Molonglo Radio Telescope, University of Sydney
Redevelop the telescope with new wide-band feeds, low-noise amplifiers,
digital filterbanks and FX correlator to demonstrate 300-1420 MHz
continuous frequency coverage and multibeam mode operation. 
Allow the testing of several new technologies to provide a new capability
for low-frequency radio spectroscopy in Australia. 

e) U Tasmania Telescopes 
Part of VLBA network.
Variable source monitoring, including pulsar timing. 


Phase 2 Planned new facilities, using largely known technology
==============================================================
Most of the following projects have not been funded although some
have proposals under consideration. Some are still in the plan development
and feasibility stage. The timescale for these projects is up to 5 years.
One likely model to secure funding for future University facilities is to
exploit small niche areas and/or to link in with National Facility
programs. VLBI astronomy is a good example of this model.

National Facilities:
a) ATCA Broadband receivers for the 1-12GHz band.
Allows full exploitation of the new broadband correlator.

b) ATCA 7mm receivers (30-50 GHz)
Makes use of the new broadband correlator.
Spectral window largely unexplored. Site performance reasonable at this 
frequency. Complementary to ALMA.

c) eVLBI
ATNF, UTas and Swinburne collaboration.
High speed data connections between facilities.
Will enable connected-element interferometry over long baselines.
Can explore possible real time VLBI array. Estimated cost in region of
$2 million.

University & Joint Projects:
d) LFD - Low Frequency Demonstrator
Low frequency array of 500 tiles operating in 100-240 MHz range. 
Consortium of Melbourne, ANU, WA, MIT, Harvard Universities & ATNF.
To be located at Mileura, WA. Primary science - EOR detection, ionospheric
and solar studies. Cost approximately $12 million. 

e) DIVA - time-variable phenomena
ATNF, UTas, USyd, Swinburne (possible others)  
An array of four ~15m antennas dedicated to monitoring variable sources in the
1-10GHz band . To be located in WA. Cost <$5 million.

f) UTas - 3 dishes
Broadband all antennas for VLBI and other projects. Cost estimate $500k.


Phase 3 New facilities from new technology:
==========================================
New technology needs to be developed for the SKA, and research has begun in
Australia and overseas into focal plane and aperture arrays.  The
construction and use of multibeam receivers for centimetre-wave astronomy
has been perfected in Australia.  The focal plane Array (FPA) is the
logical successor to the multibeam and it is important for Australia to
remain competitive in this area.  A number of radio facilities are planned
or envisaged which will incorporate FPAs. This technology is seen as the
principal new advance for the end of the decade, together with integrated
receivers on a chip, which will enable wide-field imaging and multibeam
operations, both key capabilities for the SKA.

a) Parkes FPA
To increase the survey speed of the Parkes telescope over the increases
already achieved with multibeam receivers.

b) Mopra FPA
Greatly increase mapping speed and maintain cutting edge technology in
mm-band.

c) NTD - New Technology Demonstrator
A small number of ~12m paraboloids with FPAs to demonstrate beam forming
over a wide field of view. Located in WA. Test of signal transport and
remote site operation.

d) xNTD - Extended NTD
An expanded version of the NTD to be scientifically useful. 
Frequency range expected 500 - 1000 MHz. Main science in redshifted
hydrogen. 

e) SKA pathfinder
Based on NTD/xNTD technologies
Up to 10% of the collecting area of the SKA; enables major science goals.
Expanded wavelength coverage. Design details to be developed over next
five years. 


Radiotelescope siting:
Australia has one of the world's best centimetre-wave observing
sites.  The Mileura site in Western Australia has been chosen as a
candidate SKA site for its radio quietness. Establishing facilities at
the site will be a convenient location to test the technologies under 
development for the SKA, such as remote power provision, gigabyte data
links, and digital signal transport over long distances.


Prepared from input from Dave McConnell, Tony Wong, Michael Burton, Rachel
Webster and a collation of opinions from the Facilities Meting at RSAA,
Mt Stromlo on Feb 4.

Anne Green