CSIC4SKA · skasim

Simulating the future of radio astronomy

A curated portfolio of end-to-end SKA simulations: from synthetic sky models to visibilities, dirty and CLEANed images, and UV coverage across the world's most powerful radio interferometers, created with skasim and powered by the Karabo pipeline.

skasim logo
Science cases

Comparative simulations

Each case reproduces a well-known deep-field or survey configuration with matched sky inputs and imaging parameters, making it straightforward to compare sensitivity, angular resolution, and uv-coverage across facilities.

MIGHTEE deep field preview
Available

Case #1 — MIGHTEE deep field

A 1.28 GHz continuum field observed with MeerKAT L-band, SKA1-MID Band 1/2, and the VLA in B and D configurations. All runs share the MIGHTEE DR1 sky model and a matched 0.2° field of view.

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SKA-LOW Stokes V restored image
Available

Case #2 — Polarization in the confusion limit

A 200–400 MHz SKA-LOW-AAstar snapshot with 350 sources in 0.07°. One source is set to Stokes V = 1 mJy, showing how circular polarization can lift a faint target out of a confusion-limited Stokes I field.

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SKAO Staged Delivery
Available

Case #3 — SKAO Staged Delivery

Exploring the chronological staged delivery of the SKA telescopes, from the initial AA0.5 verification array to the full AA4 design baseline. Each assembly is simulated on a 0.6° portion of the SKA Data Challenge 1 catalogue with sources down to 10 μJy.

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Arp 220 redshift sequence
Available

Case #4 — Redshifted radio galaxies

Arp 220 and Arp 299 placed at z = 0.15, 0.30, 0.50, 1.00 and 2.00, observed with SKA-MID-AA* at 1.35, 6.5 and 11.9 GHz. Cosmological dimming, angular-size scaling and SFR evolution applied to the same resolved radio galaxy model.

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Pipeline

From sky model to science image

skasim orchestrates OSKAR/Karabo for visibility simulation, CASA for image-model injection, WSClean for imaging, and shadeMS for uv-coverage diagnostics.

1

Sky model

Catalogs, component lists, or FITS images with continuum Stokes I and spectral index.

JSON FITS CASA
2

Visibilities

OSKAR/Karabo generates Measurement Sets for the requested telescope, frequency, and integration.

OSKAR Karabo MS
3

Imaging

WSClean with configurable Briggs robust, niter, pixels, and FoV; dirty images via OSKAR.

WSClean Briggs CLEAN
4

Report

Weblog with previews, FITS downloads, metadata JSON, and shadeMS uv-coverage plots.

weblog shadeMS FITS
About

CSIC4SKA

Preparing Spanish research groups and technologies for the Square Kilometre Array.

The project

CSIC4SKA is a espSRC-coordinated initiative with the goal of enhancing CSIC members' participation in international collaborations for SKA Key Science Projects, increasing visibility of CSIC studies within the SKA international community, and foster scientific and technological cooperation.

skasim in CSIC4SKA

skasim is a modular SKA simulator for creating synthetic radio-interferometric observations of the SKA (Square Kilometre Array) and precursors. It bridges user-supplied sky models and simulated imaging data products, supporting feasibility studies, definition of science cases and pipeline validation for the SKA community.

CSIC IAA SKAO OSKAR WSClean