Preparing for the SKA: The Chinese perspectives
Abstract
Since 1993, astronomers and engineers from more than 100 institutions in 20 different countries including China, have engaged in the international mega-science project—the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), which will be the world’s largest synthesis radio telescope. The SKA is currently in its pre-construction phase, and China has been playing a very active role. China has participated in 6 of the total of 10 SKA work packages, and carried out R&D in dish array, aperture array, wideband single pixel feeds, phased array feeds, signal and data transport, and science data processor. In the new SKA science book published in 2015, Chinese scholars have made their contributions in 20% of all the chapter proposals. After the SKA1 re-baselining, 20 Chinese astronomers participated in 11 out of the 13 SKA scientific working groups. The “2+1 Strategy” for China’s SKA science priorities has been established, and some important progress has been made in cosmological re-ionization detection as well as in SKA data processing. In June 2015, the Chinese participation in SKA1 passed through the Chinese Academy of Sciences Panel Review. The Chinese Community is now deeply involved into the preparation of the SKA, with activities such as SKA science cases study, researching on high-precision light-weight antennas, developing the Chinese prototype array, as well as some efforts in building an SKA regional data center in China. This article gives a brief historical review of the SKA, overviews some international and domestic progress of the project during its preconstruction phase, and also discusses some future plans of the Chinese SKA.
