Astronomy with Cutting-Edge ICT: From Transients in the Sky to Data over the Continents (India-US)

Astronomy has always been at the forefront of information technology, movingfrom the era of photographic plates, to digital snapshots and now to digital movies of thesky. This has brought about a data explosion with multi-terabyte surveys already happeningand upcoming petabyte scale surveys. By scanning the sky repeatedly and automatically,astronomers find rapidly changing phenomena – transients - of a great variety. Surveys likethe Catalina Real-time Transient Survey (CRTS) publish details on the transients rightaway since many of these fade in a matter of minutes and it is important to get additionalobservations in order to determine their nature. This involves being able to combine avariety of datasets, small and large, in real-time. With networks like the Asia PacificAdvanced Network (APAN) and India’s National Knowledge Network (NKN) we are inthe realm where such a data transfer is possible in real time across continents. Here wedescribe the live demonstration we were able to carry out at data transfer speeds of severalhundred megabits per second (Mbps) between California Institute of Technology (Caltech,USA) and the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA, India).This project illustrates how machines can make rapid decisions in response to complex,heterogeneous data, using sophisticated software and networking. While the broader impactcovers all aspects of society (disaster response, power grids, earthquakes, and many more),we have used astronomy to show how the APAN and NKN make this possible