Imaging SKA-Scale data in three different computing environments

Understand

We present the results of our investigations into options for the computing platform for the imaging pipeline in the CHILES project, an ultra-deep HI pathfinder for the era of the Square Kilometre Array.

• CHILES pushes the current computing infrastructure to its limits and understanding how to deliver the images from this project is clarifying the Science Data Processing requirements for the SKA.
• We have tested three platforms: a moderately sized cluster, a massive High Performance Computing (HPC) system, and the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud computing platform.
• We have used well-established tools for data reduction and performance measurement to investigate the behaviour of these platforms for the complicated access patterns of real-life Radio Astronomy data reduction.