The federal government recently announced that Canada will join the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) Observatory and will provide funding for a domestic SKA Regional Centre (SRC) to support the science exploitation to the data from this facility. We will present an overview of the SKA and the international SRC Network followed by a description of the baseline plans for the Canadian SRC and how those plans fit within the context of the large astronomy projects in Canada.
Speaker
Séverin Gaudet
Lead, SKA Canada Regional Centre | National Research Council Canada
Séverin is leading the effort in Canada to design and implement the Canadian SKA Regional Centre (SRC), a node in the interoperating network of regional centres located around the globe. He has served as the Canadian representative on the international SKA Regional Centre Steering Committee since its creation. Séverin was for many years responsible for software development projects for the Canadian Astronomy Data Centre (CADC), part of NRC’s Herzberg Astronomy and Astrophysics in Victoria, BC. The CADC is a world leader in the field of astronomy data management and delivery. It is responsible for archiving and distributing data for the major ground-based and space-based telescopes in which Canada is a partner (http://www.cadc.hia.nrc.gc.ca). It is also home to the Canadian Virtual Observatory project, part of the worldwide International Virtual Observatories Alliance. The CADC is also the operational centre of CANFAR – the Canadian Advanced Network for Astronomical Research (http://www.canfar.net), a science platform supporting collaborative research projects in astronomy.