LEVERAGING ASTRONOMY DATA AND COMPUTING SERVICES (ADACS) TO ADDRESS ASTRONOMY DATA AND COMPUTING NEEDS

Dr Robert Shen¹, Dr James Murray¹, Mr Mark McAuley¹

¹Astronomy Australia Limited, Hawthorn, Australia, robert.shen@astronomyaustralia.org.au, james.murray@astronomyaustralia.org.au, mark.mcauley@astronomyaustralia.org.au

Introduction

The second Decadal Plan for Australian Astronomy “Australia in the era of global astronomy 2016-2025” identified five equally-weighted science priorities, including “world-class high performance computing (HPC) and software capability for large theoretical simulations, and resources to enable processing and delivery of large data sets from these facilities” [1]. To better address this priority, Astronomy Australia Limited (AAL) commissioned a working group by drawing data and computing experts from Australian astronomy research institutes and national computing peak facilities (e.g. Pawsey, NCI and Swinburne gSTAR). The working group produced the “computing infrastructure planning working group report” in October 2016 that reviewed the existing computing infrastructures available to astronomers and advised AAL on investments in data and computing infrastructure areas over the next 5 years. There are two key recommendations derived in the report [2]:

• AAL should invest in the provision of Astronomy Data and Computing Services (ADACS) to provide discipline-specific training, support and expertise.
• AAL should invest approximately $7-15M every five years for astronomy-dedicated data storage and computing resources.

In accordance with the recommendations in this report, AAL established the Astronomy Data and Computing Services (ADACS) to provide astronomy-oriented data and computing services for the Australian astronomy community. But AAL has put implementation of the second recommendation temporarily on hold due to limited NCRIS funding. This paper will give a brief overview of ADACS and its related current and future service components.

Overview of ADACS Current service components

ADACS was officially launched in early 2017, to provide astronomy-focused training, support and expertise; to allow astronomers to maximise the scientific return from data and computing infrastructure [3]. At present, ADACS has two nodes: (1) Melbourne node (led by Prof. Jarrod Hurley from Swinburne University) and (2) Perth node (co-led by Prof. Andrew Rohl from the Curtin University and Dr. Jenni Harrison from the Pawsey Supercomputing Center). ADACS currently has four service components:

• SC1: Training, which aims to provide expert training and support in software development, data management and HPC. For the last 18 months, ADACS has delivered a set of astronomy-oriented face-to-face training events, national roadshows, online events (webinars, eLearnings at ADACS learning management system) and astronomy data hackathon events.
• SC2: National support, which aims to empower Australian-based astronomers to advance their research by providing astronomy oriented national support. The key service here is scientific computing and software development, which aims to embed data and computing experts in astronomy research team(s) to solve their data and computing challenges. The tasks ranged from cleaning up astronomy data, to simplifying access to HPC, optimising data pipelines or other activities specified by astronomers. ADACS has allocated two rounds of scientific computing and software development services. The oversubscription rate for the first round (Q3-Q4, 2017) was more than 300% and the oversubscription rate for the second round (Q1-Q2, 2018) was more than 500%.
• SC3: All Sky Virtual Observatory (ASVO), which aims to integrate and federate existing ASVO nodes to enable relevant astronomy datasets to be findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable. Leveraging funding from NecTAR, ANDS and RDS, ASVO has successfully created three nodes (TAO[1], SkyMapper[2] and AAO Data Central[3]) to better support the access to both theoretical and optical astronomy data. Furthermore, ADACS also partnered with the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) team to build a new ASVO node that provided the astronomy community with improved access to both public and mediated MWA data (again leveraging funding from NeCTAR, ANDS and RDS).
• SC4: Access to national resources, which aims to ensure the sufficient storage and computing resources are available to Australian-based astronomers. ADACS contributed to the operation of the newly established OzSTAR supercomputer at Swinburne. As the result, 20% of OzSTAR HPC times (~ 7400 kSU) are available to the national astronomy community. An Astronomy Time Supercomputing Allocation Committee was set up to better allocate HPC resources to the national astronomy community.

Preview of  future ADACS services

AAL has invested $1.3M to ADACS over the last 18 months and expects to maintain reasonable funding levels so as to pursue the following goals:

• ADACS will develop a pool of experts that can provide critically required training to Australian-based astronomers, but also actively participate in bidding for SKA Science Data Processor (SDP) contracts. ADACS will provide career progression options that develop into long-term careers for these eResearch experts.
• ADACS will drive research and development in the big data sector. For example, ADACS should have capacity to develop innovative tools and data analysis techniques that enhance existing astronomy projects, and pioneer new methodologies for future-scale projects. Many of these tools will be transferred to other research disciplines.
• ADACS will create opportunities for engagement between the academic and industry research sectors to boost the impact of innovation and enhance alternative career paths for astronomy graduates.

REFERENCES

1. Australian Academy of Science – National committee for astronomy, Australia in the era of global astronomy, the decadal plan for Australian astronomy 2016 -2025, http://www.astronomyaustralia.org.au/uploads/4/8/2/5/48250739/astronomy-decadal-plan-2016-25.pdf (accessed on 7 June 2018).
2. AAL eResearch Advisory Committee, computing infrastructure planning working group report, http://astronomyaustralia.org.au/files/AAL_Computing_Working_Group_Report_13Oct2016.pdf (accessed on 7 June 2018).
3. Astronomy Data and Computing Services, https://adacs.org.au (accessed on 7 June 2018).

[1] https://tao.asvo.org.au

[2] https://datacentral.aao.gov.au

[3] http://skymapper.anu.edu.au

Biography:

Dr Robert (Xiaobin) Shen holds a PhD in Information Technology (2006) from the University of Sydney and joined the Astronomy Australia Ltd team in September 2016 as Program Manager. He has previously worked at Australian National Data Service (ANDS) as a senior research analyst for 7.5 years and the University of Melbourne as a research fellow for 3 years.