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Current Research
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Astronomy
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The astronomers at Brandon University use telescopes at distant
locations around the world in their research. They must download
large blocks of data that accumulate during each night of observing
at the telescope. These telescopes include both large established
facilities which are used for shorter periods, as well as smaller, dedicated
facilities that supply a constant stream of data throughout the
year. Data flows can and will reach several gigabytes per day. The
astronomers at Brandon also have a requirement for real-time control
of distant telescopes for which the bandwidth requirements are
significant.
In August 2006, a Brandon astronomer operated remotely the largest,
fully steerable radio telescope in the world at Greenbank, Virginia
from his office at Brandon University. This was possible because
of the bandwidth and stability of the CANARIE R&E network
connection through MRnet. |
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He successfully gathered astronomical
data throughout the nights of August 15 and 17 without experiencing
any problems or delays. Remote observing is a privilege granted
by the observatories that operate the telescopes. Without the CANARIE
R&E network connection on the Brandon University campus,
remote observing opportunities would not be available to astronomers
in Brandon.This particular research at Brandon University involves producing a
“big picture” view of our Galaxy by computer modeling observations
of the distribution and motions of neutral hydrogen gas (as
observed with radio telescopes). The computer model currently being
applied to these data requires very substantial computing power
to generate, a computation that must be repeated many times per
iteration as the model is compared to the radio data, which in itself is
many gigabytes in size.
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Adaptation of the program to run on a massively parallel computing
facility using WestGrid will allow researchers to try out more realistic
physical descriptions in the model. Once a final fitted model of
the Galaxy has been made, interpreting its many subtle features will
require the capability of visualizing it in all three dimensions. The
data visualization room at Brandon University will be an excellent
resource for visualizing the model of the Milky Way and visually
comparing it in real time to the actual radio data.
Other astronomers do research in stellar spectroscopy and the atmospheres
of hot stars. The observed ultrahigh quality spectra of the
stars are used to construct computer models of the atmospheres
of the stars. These models determine the temperature,
pressure and elemental abundances of each star. To
observe the spectra of stars the research group is assigned
up to one third of the available time on the 1.2-m telescope
in Victoria, BC. This may amount to some 50 clear
nights per year, the data for each of which is downloaded,
processed and analyzed at Brandon University through
MRnet. The research group also has constructed a 0.5-m
telescope in Arizona solely for their use. That telescope is
equipped with a unique stellar spectroscopy instrument
that is in demand by many researchers. Its entire output
for an expected 200 clear nights per year at 4 gigabytes
per night will be downloaded and processed at Brandon
University before being redistributed to collaborators
around the world. These data will allow researchers to
measure accurate temperatures and surface gravities for
every star in the sky that is visible to the naked eye.
Another astronomer is part of a collaboration with German
and Austrian astronomers who have built a robotic observatory
on the Canary Islands to continually observe stars
that are classified as “active” which means that like the
Sun they exhibit variable magnetic field strengths, surface
spot numbers and total energy output. Given the current
political debate about climate change and the contribution
of the solar driving effect, this is obviously research with
“down to Earth” implications. Astronomers are unable to
see the surface features of stars other than the Sun directly
with their telescopes. In order to see the surface images of
active stars for this research they must make continuous
spectroscopic observations of a star and then make use of
a program with characteristics similar to medical CAT
scanning to recover the image of the star.
This project’s requirements for data transmission are
driven by the rate of acquisition of stellar spectra and the
size of the data files for each observation. This leads to a
requirement of four gigabytes or more of data per night to
be transported to the pipeline reduction facility in Potsdam
and then, depending on the stage of reduction required
next, there may be as much as one gigabyte per night to be
transferred to Brandon University over MRnet. |
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