Managing the flood of data from space

NRW Research Association taps the potential of radio astronomy

Astronomers are using radio waves to look deeper and deeper into the universe. In the process, they produce massive amounts of data, which will soon have reached the volume of global internet traffic. So researchers are looking for new ways to manage this flood of data. Interactive visual analysis and artificial intelligence can help filter signals according to relevance.

For this purpose, eight institutions in North Rhine-Westphalia joined forces to form the “NRW Cluster for Data-Intensive Radio Astronomy: Big Bang to Big Data” in 2021. Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg, University of Applied Sciences is contributing its experience in visualising and analysing large amounts of data. At the Institute of Visual Computing (IVC), around 50 scientists work with a basic, user-oriented approach, also as partners for local companies. “Participating in the cluster gives us access to very large, non-personal data sets,” says André Hinkenjann, Institute Director and Research Professor for Computer Graphics and Interactive Environments.

Doctorates in the current research environment

New opportunities for young scientists arise, too. Participation in the cluster not only allows access to data from the Effelsberg radio telescope in the Eifel and the ALMA observatory in Chile, but the project partners can also use research results from the cluster for their own projects. “Our students can complete doctorates in a cutting-edge field of research,” André Hinkenjann is pleased to say. In the long term, the participating universities and science centres expect that an interdisciplinary research and teaching community will emerge in NRW, linking the fields of radio astronomy and data science into a single unit in a novel way. This could also open up avenues for industrial use. State funding from the “Profiling” programme, in which nine projects are being funded with a total of 22 million euros, is to contribute to this development.

More: United in the cluster “Big Bang

to Big Data“:

Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy, University of Bonn, Jülich Research Centre, Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg, Ruhr University Bochum, TU Dortmund, Bielefeld University, University of Cologne. https://b3d.nrw/en/

Data streams visually processed: Megapixel display wall Hornet at H-BRS