News from the Radio Astronomy Committee…

Outreach/Information/Education

The RAC web site has now been up for about a year and can be found at www.astro.queensu.ca/~irwin/radast. This site contains general information on radio astronomy, information on upcoming meetings, on major projects that Canada is involved with, and links relevant to the items raised below. There is also a link to this site from the "Committees" page of the CASCA web site. Feedback and updates for this site are welcome (see email address at end).

A special JCMT Science Session was held at the recent CASCA meeting in Montreal, well organized thanks to Rene Plume. ALMA posters were also present, thanks to Christine Wilson. ALMA and SKA special sessions were also held during this meeting.

Spectrum Management

The number and nature of radio services is growing rapidly and it is necessary to maintain a continuous and consistent effort in areas of spectrum management. Current issues include: Band-by-band study into the compatibility of other radio services with radio astronomy bands, allocation of frequencies between 275 and 3000 GHz, compatibility of radio astronomy (and other services) with the widespread, unlicensed deployment of ultra-wideband devices, and compatibility of radio astronomy with the use of electrical power lines for data communications.

CALL FOR INPUT FROM THE COMMUNITY: New Frequencies up to 3000 GHZ (radio through IR)

The International Telecommunications Union is now conducting studies regarding the allocation of the radio spectrum at frequencies to 3000 GHz. With the high value of such frequencies for continuum and spectal observations, we should ensure we make our claims. Canadian astronomers with scientific interests particularly in frequency ranges between 275 and 3000 GHz are invited to send their suggestions to the CASCA RAC or to Ken Tapping (ktapping@drao.nrc.ca) directly, together with some words of justification. We did surprisingly well with the reallocation of spectrum between 71 and 275 GHz. We will make progress at these higher frequencies if we can make reasoned, defensible requests. The output will be a prioritized list that can be input to the discussions at upcoming meetings in Geneva. Also, if there are any members of the community who are interested in assisting Ken Tapping with spectrum management, please contact him.

JCMT

An initial review of the JCMT Legacy Survey Proposals for SCUBA-2 and HARP-B has now taken place. Please note, however, that it is not too late to join the various consortia and interested individuals are asked to contact the respective PIs if they are interested. Canada is well represented in these surveys. Please email me (see address below) for the username and password if needed.

Regarding current instrumentation, unfortunately, SCUBA has encountered a major problem and is currently unavailable. Attempts are being made to determine whether this instrument can be repaired.

Other instrumentation under development looks very good. ACSIS was delivered in Dec/04 and installed in Feb/05. The HARP front end is expected to be installed this summer and (hopefully) available for Semester 05B . Links to the home pages of these instruments can be found on the RAC web page. In other good news, SCUBA-2 has now been fully funded and there appear to be no serious technical problems. Delivery time is anticipated to be in about a year. This year (2005) a demonstration of the link between the JCMT and SMA is expected to take place as well.

The JCMT continues to be in strong demand. Towards the end of this year, there will be a strategic review of the telescope, in anticipation of the upcoming end of the current Tripartite agreement in May, 2007.

ALMA

Please see a separate report in this issue by Christine Wilson.

SKA/LAR

Work on Large Adaptive Reflector (LAR) technology is continuing apace in Penticton. Much progress on the technical front has been made including the aerostat, the adaptive surface, the mechanical structures and the control system. More emphasis is now being placed on development of the phased arrays feed systems that will be placed in focal plane.

In order to facilitate the signing of an international SKA agreement by Canada, the committees and organization of the SKA/LAR project have been reorganized. ACURA has now taken on the SKA/LAR as a project and an MOU has been signed between ACURA, HIA and industry to form a Canadian SKA Consortium. Russ Taylor is the chair of the Consortium Board, which has representatives from all the signatories to the MOU. In the process, the Canadian SKA Science Steering Committee has been renamed the Canadian SKA Science Advisory Committee (CSSAC). This committee remains a CASCA RAC subcommittee and the membership is remaining the same, except for normal turnover.

On the international SKA front, both Peter Dewdney and Russ Taylor attended the 13th International SKA Steering Committee Meeting in China this year. The next major meeting will be held in Pune, India this Fall. The International SKA Steering Committee has representatives from sixteen countries who are involved in the scientific and technical planning of the SKA. At the recent meeting, the American members suggested, for a number of reasons, that the SKA be split into two arrays, one for low frequencies up to about 2 GHz and one for high frequencies, up to 38 GHz. This idea has not been accepted by the Committee, and it is not clear whether it will be. However, since the Canadian concept for the SKA was the design which best met the original science goals to span the entire wavelength regime; this proposal has the potential to impact to the choice of Canada's design for the international SKA. In the future, some decisions might have to be made to determine whether Canada should focus on the strongest possible international commitment, on realizing its own design as a 'pathfinder' instrument, or some balance between the two. In the mean time, LAR devevelopment plans are unaffected by this situation are continuing strongly.

For more information on this project, see links from the RAC web page.

EVLA

Canada has invested $20M into the Expanded VLA (EVLA) project. The result should be a substantial (about 100 times) improvement in sensitivity. An abundance of new science opportunities for Canadian scientists will arise for this new telesope, starting in 2008 as the new correlator and system electronics are phased in. This is a good time for Canadians to start to think about projects which could utilize this new expanded facility.

Judith Irwin
Queen's University
irwin@astro.queensu.ca