New animation shows data flow in the network of SKA regional centers

This AENEAS animation depicts the data flow among the likely sites for the regional centers of SKA around the world. Raw data from the thousands of dishes in South Africa and Australia will arrive at high-performance computing facilities in the host countries where it will be processed and converted into a number of science data products. The data volume of these products is expected to be on the order of 600 PB per year, which will flow to a network of regional centers around the world via high-capacity intercontinental links. Scientists around the world will be able to retrieve SKA data products and use the computational capabilities within the regional centers to further analyse SKA data and extract scientific insights.

Planning and design of the SKA regional centers is slowly gaining momentum with projects such as AENEAS in Europe, ERIDANUS in Asia-Pacific, CIRADA in Canada and IDIA in South Africa. The map above represent the possible sites of the SKA regional centers, each of which will in term be a distributed data center with multiple participation research and commercial nodes.

AENEAS is the European effort to develop an operational model for the European Science Data Center (ESDC) for the SKA. Check Project Outputs for detailed analysis and reports on the design and functionality of the ESDC.