ATNF News 3 | June 2024
It has been a busy first half of 2024. Our technology developments have been strong, we have a huge amount of data products available for all astronomers, and I've seen plenty of great work getting recognition in journals around the world.
At the beginning of April, we held the biannual Australia Telescope User Committee (ATUC) meeting. The first day of this meeting is an open session, designed to bring the community together for updates and discussion. I appreciate everyone who attends, as these gatherings and open conversations allow us to understand your needs and make the facility the very best it can be. The ATUC Report to the Director is now available for download. To see presentations from the meeting, visit the ATNF website. The next meeting will be held in October.
A component of these meetings is the strategic planning taking place within the Australian astronomy community. We are preparing a document describing our view of ATNF capabilities for the decade to come and we'll be sharing this document with the ATNF user community when it is ready.
As you may have heard, ATNF's Science Program Director, George Heald, is moving on to Lead Commissioning Scientist role with the SKA-Low team. I have personally appreciated George's sage advice and leadership at CSIRO, and I congratulate him on his new position. For the interim, George Hobbs has stepped into this role.
A reminder that proposals are currently open for time on telescopes between 1 October 2024 and 31 March 2025. The deadline for proposals is 14 June 2024 07:00 UTC.
With that, I wish you well on all your research endeavours and look forward to hearing about the achievements of the ATNF user community.
Douglas Bock, ATNF Director
New radio sky maps available
The Rapid ASKAP Continuum Surveys (RACS), conducted by CSIRO’s ASKAP team, map the sky and make the data available to all researchers.
The first survey was done in ASKAP’s lower frequency range (RACS-low) and though it was experimental, the resulting science output was state-of-the-art and demonstrated ASKAP as a revolutionary survey telescope. With 300 hours of telescope time, ASKAP succeeded in producing data on three million galaxies. This is faster than any other instrument by a factor of years.
After RACS-low, improvements were made to observing and processing strategies. With RACS-low3, ASKAP is achieving increased sky coverage and improved sensitivity.
The RACS-low survey papers, McConnell et al. (2020) and Hale et al. (2021), have already garnered over 270 citations. A linear polarisation (SPICE-RACS) in RACS-low by Thomson et al. (2024) is available.
There are also RACS mid-frequency (RACS-mid) survey papers: Duchesne et al. (2023) and Duchesne et al. (2024).
All surveys are now available on CASDA, soon to be joined by RACS-high over the coming months. Visit the RACS website for updates.
ATNF Pulsar Catalogue version 2 is here
A large-scale update of the ATNF Pulsar Catalogue (PSRCAT) and the underlying software is complete.
The catalogue has provided information on pulsars since 2004 and is used for online observations at ATNF instruments. The paper describing PSRCAT receives over 200 citations per year.
A huge variety of studies use the catalogue. There’s Shemar et al. discussing the feasibility of deep-space navigation, Melatos et al. studying pulsar glitch events and, in the most recent citation, Ascenzi et al. describing neutron-star measurements in the era of multi-messenger tracers (electromagnetic and gravitational waves, neutrinos, and cosmic rays).
What will arise from this new catalogue? PSRCAT version 2 is based on an SQL database, which provides the capability of storing more pulsars and more parameters.
ATOA data available in CASDA
The work to ingest and serve data from the Australia Telescope Online Archive (ATOA) into the CSIRO ASKAP Science Data Archive (CASDA) has now been completed.
ATOA is the long running service providing access to data from our Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA), the Long Baseline Array (LBA), and Murriyang, our Parkes radio telescope (specifically, spectral line and continuum data). To handle the data rate from technology upgrades to the telescopes, ATOA is being migrated to the CASDA infrastructure.
The LBA data from 2022 onwards is now available in CASDA. Deposit and migration updates can be found on the CASDA website.
BIGCAT
BIGCAT is an upgrade to ATCA’s entire back-end. This will double the instantaneous bandwidth, offer more bespoke spectral line configurations, improve reliability, as well as make ATCA more adaptable and flexible to your project needs.
Testing of the BIGCAT hardware occurred in mid-April on two antennas. The installation of the BIGCAT hardware was quicker than anticipated, with first light observations in less than two days. The team obtained clear detections of several astronomical targets, including simultaneous observations of the 6.7 and 12.2 GHz methanol masers, a feat that isn’t possible with the current system. The first phase of installation will take place during the next observing semester (from October).
These early installations and tests are extremely positive, showing that ATCA will continue to be a significant instrument into the future.
CryoPAF
Installation of the CryoPAF on Murriyang, our Parkes radio telescope, is tentatively earmarked for the third quarter of 2024. Over the past few months, the project team have been continuing firmware and software development. They have also been resolving technical issues identified late last year related to the vacuum and cryogenic systems, while navigating competing delivery schedules across multiple projects. Once installed, initial commissioning of the CryoPAF is expected to take about six months. We’re excited to see what new discoveries will be possible with this new receiver.
Meet Dr Marcus Lower
As the principal investigator for the Parkes Young Pulsar Monitoring Project and project scientist for the Magnetar Monitoring Project, Marcus Lower is mapping the strange environments and behaviours of neutron stars.
"There is so much that you can do with pulsars!" Marcus says. "They're some of the best laboratories in the Universe for testing our theories of electrodynamics, gravity and nuclear matter."
Having completed their PhD with Swinburne University and CSIRO in 2021, Marcus is now a CERC Fellow and regularly uses Murriyang, our Parkes radio telescope, to unravel these stellar mysteries.
"I love the testing of new and occasionally whacky ideas, the satisfaction of seeing things come together, and the fun of collaborating with people all over the world."
Read Marcus' latest article for The Conversation.
Studying the success of anonymous applications
A study by the Office of the Women in STEM Ambassador used ATNF proposal data, alongside three other national facilities, to assess the efficacy of anonymous applications.
At the ATNF, gender diversity of successful applications did not change after the implementation of semi-anonymisation. While this reassures us that our Time Assignment Committee (TAC) policies and procedures were effective in mitigating against any possible gendered bias, we continue to implement other strategies to further limit bias in the review process. The ATNF TAC now follows a fully dual-anonymous peer review as has become standard in many observatories around the world.
Read the full study on the UNSW website.