BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//ZContent.net//ZapCalLib 1.0//EN
CALSCALE:GREGORIAN
METHOD:PUBLISH
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Atlantic/Canary:20160114T103000
DTEND;TZID=Atlantic/Canary:20160114T113000
UID:iactalks-857
X-WR-CALNAME: IAC Talks: Open Astronomy Seminars
X-ORIGINAL-URL: /iactalks/Talks/view/857
CREATED:2016-01-14T10:30:00+00:00
X-WR-CALDESC: IAC Talks upcomming talks
SUMMARY:The Spanish participation in the Square Kilometre Array (SKA)
DESCRIPTION:The Spanish participation in the Square Kilometre Array (SKA)\n
 Dr. Lourdes Verdes-Montenegro\n\nThe Square Kilometre Array (SKA) project 
 intends to build a radio-interferometer with 1-sq-km collecting area, and 
 thousands of antennas with baselines up to 3000 km, to be hosted in two co
 ntinents (Africa and Oceania). This will provide tens of times more sensit
 ivity and allow astronomers to survey the entire sky thousands of times fa
 ster  than any system currently in existence, with the ability to image hu
 ge areas of sky in parallel.\nSpain is actively participating in the SKA d
 etailed design phase, both at a scientific and technological level. The po
 tential of SKA for fundamental breakthroughs in Astrophysics, Physics, and
  Astrobiology has made that the Spanish SKA White Book has been published,
  with more than 125 authors who have summarized in 29 chapters the interes
 t of the Spanish scientific community. At the same time, SKA constitutes a
  technology tractor for high-impact societal areas. Among the 100 companie
 s and research institutions across 20 countries that are contributing to S
 KA design, 10 Spanish research centres and 11 companies participate in sev
 eral work packages (Dishes, Signal & Data Transport, Central Signal Pr
 ocessor, Science Data Processor, Telescope Manager, and Infrastructure). T
 his Spanish technological participation in the SKA, with an estimated fina
 ncial value of ~€2M, has been officially acknowledged by the SKA Boar
 d. Since October 2013 a representative of the Spanish government has been 
 regularly invited to participate in the SKA Board meetings. Furthermore, a
 t the beginning of 2014, the Board of the Spanish Astronomy Infrastructure
 s Network endorsed the recommendation issued by the Radio Astronomy Infras
 tructures working group on the interest of the scientific community and in
 dustry that Spain explores the possibility to join the SKA project as Full
  Memb er before the construction phase starts. The interest of the Spanish
  community and industry was restated during the SKA Spanish day held in Oc
 tober 2014 while a new SKA Spanish Industry Day will be organized by CDTI 
 in 2016.\nThe aim of this talk is providing a retrospective view of the Sp
 anish participation in SKA project and explain the current status of its p
 articipation and opportunities of involvement.
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR