Speaker Name: Professor David Davidson, Director Curtin Institute of Radio Astronomy (CIRA), Engineering, Curtin University, Perth, Australia
Talk Title: Design and Simulation of Aperture Arrays for Radio Astronomy: the SKA-LOW telescope
Abstract:
In radio astronomy, an aperture array is a phased array with a direct view of the sky (as opposed to a phased array feed). Work towards the Square Kilometre Array (SKA)-LOW radio telescope, which covers much of the VHF radio band, has prompted extensive research on such systems over the last two decades, including the MWA and LOFAR telescopes. Design considerations and aspects of the SKA-LOW telescope, to be deployed in Western Australia, will be outlined. Presently, each of the 512 SKA-LOW “stations” is to comprise 256 dual-polarized log-periodic antennas. After discussing some general aspects of SKA, and SKA-Low, this presentation will describe in some detail the numerical modelling of station patterns using embedded element patterns, which fully capture the complex mutual coupling environment of each antenna. The implications for SKA-LOW will conclude the paper.
Speaker Biography:
From 1985 to 1988, Prof. David Davidson was with the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Pretoria, South Africa. From 1988 until 2017, he was with Stellenbosch University, South Africa. From 2011-17, he held the South African Research Chair in Electromagnetic Systems and EMI Mitigation for SKA at Stellenbosch University; he was also a Distinguished Professor there and is presently Professor Extraordinary. He holds a B1 research rating from the (South African) National Research Foundation. As of 2018, he joined Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia. He has held a number of visiting appointments, including at the University of Arizona (1993); Cambridge University, UK (1997); Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands (2003); and the University of Manchester, UK (2009). He is a registered Professional Engineer with the Engineering Council of South Africa. There is a brief bio available on www.icrar.org/people/ddavidson/
16 ноя 2020
