Data Challenges for Next-generation Radio Telescopes

Understand

Radio-astronomy is about to embark on a new way of doing science.

• The revolution that is about to take place is not due to the enormous sensitivity of the Square Kilometre Array, which is still a decade away, but due to its pathfinders, which are pioneering new ways of doing radio-astronomy.
• These new ways include multi-pixel phased-array feeds, the goal of producing science-ready images from a real-time pipeline processor, and from the vast amounts of survey data that will be available in the public domain soon after observing.
• Here I review the data challenges that need to be addressed if we are to reap all the science that potentially resides in SKA Pathfinder data.