Square Kilometre Array

The Square Kilometre Array is an international radio astronomy project building large antenna arrays in Australia and South Africa. Its design aims for exceptional sensitivity and survey speed across a broad range of radio frequencies.

Radio interferometry: A method that combines signals from separated radio antennas to measure spatial detail finer than a single dish can provide. The array's sensitivity and angular resolution depend on combining signals across its stations.
SKA-Low: The low-frequency component of the Square Kilometre Array, consisting of many simple antennas in Western Australia. It captures the longest radio wavelengths in the project's planned observing range.
SKA Organisation: The international body established to lead the design and preparation of the Square Kilometre Array. It coordinated the project before governance moved to the intergovernmental observatory.
Epoch of Reionization: The era when the first luminous sources ionized most of the neutral hydrogen in the early universe. SKA-Low is designed to map faint hydrogen signals from this poorly observed period.
Big data in astronomy: The collection, processing, and analysis of datasets too large or complex for traditional astronomical workflows. The SKA's continuous high-volume signals require major advances in data processing and storage.
Aperture synthesis: An imaging method that reconstructs a telescope's effective aperture from measurements made across multiple baselines. Earth's rotation and many antenna pairs let the array build images from sampled spatial frequencies.
SKA-Mid: The mid-frequency component of the Square Kilometre Array, built from dish antennas in South Africa. Its dishes cover higher radio frequencies than the Australian antenna stations.
SKA Observatory: An intergovernmental organization that constructs and operates the Square Kilometre Array. It is the treaty-based institution responsible for delivering and running the telescopes.
Pulsar timing array: A network of precisely timed pulsars used to detect low-frequency gravitational waves through correlated timing shifts. SKA observations can expand pulsar samples and improve sensitivity to gravitational-wave backgrounds.
Radio frequency interference: Unwanted human-made radio signals that contaminate astronomical observations. Protecting observations from interference is essential at both SKA sites.

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