Speaker
Description
The dawn of the MeerKAT era and the approaching Square Kilometre Array (SKA) present unprecedented data challenges and opportunities for South African astronomy. To meet this demand, the ilifu cloud computing facility has been established as a critical, researcher-driven infrastructure. Operated by the Inter-University Institute for Data-Intensive Astronomy (IDIA), ilifu provides the foundational data-intensive platform that enables South African astronomers to lead in the era of big-data radio astronomy.
In this talk, I will detail how ilifu directly supports the radio astronomy community. It serves as the primary computational backbone for processing data from key MeerKAT Large Survey Projects, including MIGHTEE, LADUMA, ThunderKAT, and the MeerKAT Fornax Survey. Beyond these surveys, ilifu provides the essential data processing and analysis support for African VLBI science required for the expanding SKA network. ilifu offers a flexible, cloud-native environment where researchers can access scalable computing power and storage to run specialised workflows for calibration, imaging, and source finding. Beyond raw processing, the facility provides platforms for advanced post-processing, analytics, and multi-wavelength data fusion, facilitating collaboration across distributed teams.
By providing a unified research environment with federated access to web services, ilifu ensures efficient and equitable access to world-class cyberinfrastructure for South African researchers. This talk will highlight how ilifu is not only tackling the immediate data deluge from MeerKAT but is also developing the scalable, cloud-based systems that are foundational for future African leadership in the SKA era.
| Stream | Science or Engineering |
|---|