EXPReS
(Express Production Real-time e-VLBI Service)
NEWS: EXPReS conducts first real-time e-VLBI observation with telescopes in Africa, Europe, North America and South America
Networks create 11,000km real-time virtual telescope
On 22 May, members of the EXPReS project for the first time ever simultaneously linked telescopes in Africa, Europe, North America and South America to the central data correlator in the Netherlands, simulating a telescope almost 11,000 kilometers in diameter. JIVE director Huib Jan van Langevelde said, "These results are very significant for the advance of radio astronomy; it shows not only that telescopes of the future can be developed in worldwide collaboration, but that they can also be operated as truly global instruments." Science/astronomy- and networking-specific press releases are available.
EXPReS is a three-year project to create a distributed astronomical instrument of continental and intercontinental dimensions using e-VLBI.
e-VLBI, or real-time, electronic Very Long Baseline Interferometry, uses fibre optic networks to connect radio telescopes to a central data processor, a purpose-built supercomputer which correlates data from the telescopes in real-time. Transferring data electronically and correlating it in real-time eliminates weeks of waiting from the current VLBI method of storing data on disks and shipping them to the correlator for processing. This allows researchers to take advantage of Targets of Opportunity for conducting follow-on observations of transient events such as supernova explosions and gamma-ray bursts. e-VLBI also allows for high precision tracking of space probes.
EXPReS's objectives are to connect up to 16 of the world's most sensitive radio telescopes on six continents to the central data processor of the European VLBI Network at the Joint Institute for VLBI in Europe (JIVE). Specific activities involve securing "last-mile connections" and upgrading existing connections to the telescopes, updating the correlator to process up to 16 data streams at 1Gbps each in real time and research possibilities for distributed computing to replace the centralized data processor.
EXPReS is an Integrated Infrastructure Initiative (I3), funded under the European Commission’s Sixth Framework Programme (FP6), contract number 026642, from March 2006 through February 2009.