Joint Institute For VLBI in Europe 11-12 Biennial report 2011-2012 The Joint Institute for VLBI in Europe (JIVE) was established as a scientific foundation in December 1993. JIVE’s mandate is to support the operations of the European VLBI Network (EVN) in the widest sense. JIVE’s operations are supported via multi‐national funds from the following organisations: Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy (ASTRON), the Netherlands, National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), France National Geographical Institute (IGN), Spain, Italian National Institute of Astrophysics (INAF), Italy, Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy (MPIfR), Germany, National Astronomical Observatories of China (NAOC), China, National Research Foundation (NRF), South Africa Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO), the Netherlands, Onsala Space Observatory (OSO), Sweden, Science & Technology Facilities Council (STFC), UK Joint Institute for VLBI in Europe | Biennial report 2011‐2012 Contents 1. INSTITUTE ....................................................................................................................................................... 1 1.1. preparing for the next funding cycle ..................................................................................................... 1 1.2. enhancing the VLBI capabilities ............................................................................................................. 2 1.3. JIVE events ............................................................................................................................................. 4 2. SCIENCE OPERATIONS AND SUPPORT ............................................................................................................ 6 2.1. production correlation .......................................................................................................................... 6 2.1.1. sessions and their experiments .................................................................................................... 6 2.1.2. logistics and Infrastructure ........................................................................................................... 9 2.1.3. astronomical features ................................................................................................................. 10 2.2. EVN support ......................................................................................................................................... 11 2.2.1. new stations ................................................................................................................................ 12 2.3. PI support ............................................................................................................................................ 13 3. TECHNICAL OPERATIONS and R&D .............................................................................................................. 16 3.1. data processor maintenance ............................................................................................................... 16 3.2. data processor developments and upgrades ...................................................................................... 17 3.2.1. mark5 and jive5AB ...................................................................................................................... 17 3.2.2. archive ........................................................................................................................................ 17 3.2.3. PCint ............................................................................................................................................ 17 3.3. SFXC software correlator ..................................................................................................................... 17 3.4. next‐generation FPGA‐based EVN correlator ...................................................................................... 19 3.4.1. the UniBoard ............................................................................................................................... 19 3.4.2. UniBoard2 .................................................................................................................................... 21 3.5. user software developments ............................................................................................................... 22 3.5.1. ParselTongue .............................................................................................................................. 22 3.5.2. ALBiUS ......................................................................................................................................... 22 3.6. e‐VLBI developments ........................................................................................................................... 22 3.7. NEXPReS .............................................................................................................................................. 23 3.7.1. cloud correlation ......................................................................................................................... 23 3.7.2. high bandwidth on demand ........................................................................................................ 24 3.7.3. computing in a shared infrastructure ......................................................................................... 25 3.7.4. flexbuff: high‐bandwidth, high‐capacity networked storage ..................................................... 25 3.8. e‐VLBI workshops ................................................................................................................................ 25 3.9. towards 4gbps e‐VLBI: a demo ............................................................................................................ 26 3.9.1. objectives .................................................................................................................................... 26 3.9.2. initial situation ............................................................................................................................ 27 3.9.3. practical solutions ....................................................................................................................... 27 3.9.4. results and conclusions ............................................................................................................... 28 4. SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH ................................................................................................................................... 30 4.1. high‐mass star‐formation .................................................................................................................... 30 4.2. evolved stars ........................................................................................................................................ 32 4.3. galactic pulsars, variable and transient radio sources ......................................................................... 33 4.4. active galactic nuclei and deep extragalactic surveys ......................................................................... 36 4.5. scintillation and propagation effects ................................................................................................... 39 5. SPACE SCIENCE ............................................................................................................................................. 41 5.1. VLBI and space science ........................................................................................................................ 41 5.2. VLBI tracking of planetary and space science missions ....................................................................... 41 5.3. space VLBI: radioastron ....................................................................................................................... 44 5.4. next generation space VLBI ................................................................................................................. 45 5.5. toward moon‐based Ultra‐Long‐Wavelength Interferometer ............................................................ 46 6. EXTERNALLY FUNDED PROJECTS .................................................................................................................. 47 6.1. RadioNetFP7 ........................................................................................................................................ 47 6.1.1. EVN TNA ...................................................................................................................................... 47 6.1.2. ALBiUS ......................................................................................................................................... 47 6.1.3. UniBoard ..................................................................................................................................... 47 6.2. RadioNet3 ............................................................................................................................................ 48 Joint Institute for VLBI in Europe | Biennial report 2011‐2012 6.2.1. EVN TNA ...................................................................................................................................... 48 6.2.2. QueSERA ..................................................................................................................................... 49 6.2.3. UniBoard2 ...................................................................................................................................