Developing Real-time Coordination Pipelines in the Era of Time-Domain Radio Astronomy

该项目将充分利用彭教授在整合多个望远镜数据方面的世界领先专业知识与华为加拿大公司在电信领域的深厚研发能力之间的协同作用。通过这种合作关系，他们将研究(1)同时实时校准多个天线无线电信号的方法，以及(2)使用人工智能手机摄像头光学识别难以从射电天文观测中过滤出来的天文闯入者（例如飞机、卫星），也是实时的。该计划将带来几个深远的好处，并将加强加拿大在射电天文学和电信方面的技术领导地位。在科学上，实时相位校准技术的进步将适用于射电天文学家在寻找瞬态现象时所面临的类似挑战，比如神秘的快速射电暴，通常只能观测几毫秒，然后就永远消失了。这项研究将提供一种急需的技术来清理无线电信号，并有可能为传统射电天文学提供一种极其经济的光学补充。这个项目也有潜力为普通加拿大人和加拿大的生产力带来巨大的利益。这两家公司在合并无线电信号方面的工作，将在不需要建造更多基站的情况下，解决移动带宽不断增加的挑战。他们将射电天文学技术应用于电信网络的方法将有助于确保加拿大成为6G及相关技术的国际领导者。通过入侵者研究开发的时间同步、人工智能驱动的光学监测网络可以形成一个强大的智能传感器网络的基础，应用于交通、资源开采、建筑、安全、物流和气候变化监测。

This project will capitalize on synergies between Prof. Ue-Li Pen's world-leading expertise in combining data from multiple telescopes and Huawei Canada's deep research and development capabilities in telecommunications. Through this partnership, they will investigate (1) methods to simultaneously calibrate radio signals at multiple antennas in real-time, and (2) the use of AI-powered phone cameras to optically identify astronomical interlopers (e.g., planes, satellites) that are difficult to filter out of radio astronomical observations, also in real-time.The program will have several far-reaching benefits and will reinforce Canada's technical leadership in radio astronomy and telecommunications. Scientifically, advances to real-time phase calibration will be applicable to similar challenges faced by radio astronomers seeking to localize transient phenomena, like enigmatic fast radio bursts that are normally observable for only a few milliseconds before disappearing forever. The interloper study will provide a much needed technique to clean up radio signals, and could potentially lead to an extremely economical optical complement to conventional radio astronomy. This project also has the potential to deliver immense benefits to ordinary Canadians and to Canadian productivity. The partners' work to combine radio signals will address the challenge of increasing mobile bandwidth without needing to build ever more cell towers. Their approach to applying radio astronomy techniques to telecommunications networks will help ensure Canada becomes an international leader in 6G and related technologies. The proposed network of time-synchronized, AI-powered optical monitoring developed through the interloper study could form the basis of a powerful intelligent sensor network, with applications in transportation, resource extraction, construction, security, logistics, and climate change monitoring.