EXPReS
(Express Production Real-time e-VLBI Service)
NEWS: Astronomers in the Netherlands catch supernova, observe relativistic expansion
Using e-VLBI, astronomers from JIVE and ASTRON have observed a supernova with peculiar radio emission. In a paper to be published in Nature, the team reports, for the first time ever, detection of a relativistic outflow in a Type Ic supernova, thus supporting the link with the even more energetic Gamma Ray Bursts, some of the most energetic explosions in the Universe. Read the full press release.
NEWS: EXPReS hailed as "extraordinarily successful" and influential to SKA design
The European Commission concluded their final review of EXPReS, hailing the project as "extraordinarily successful" and encouraging the team to "explore any opportunity for further development". See the full press release here.
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 August 2009.