Locations
The headquarters of the SKA will be located at Manchester's Jodrell Bank Observatory, Cheshire, England.
Suitable sites for the SKA telescope need to be in unpopulated areas with guaranteed very low levels of man-made radio interference. Four sites were initially proposed in South Africa, Australia, Argentina and China. After considerable site evaluation surveys, Argentina and China were dropped and the other two sites were shortlisted (with New Zealand joining the Australian bid, and 8 other African countries joining the South African bid):
Australia and New Zealand: The core site is located at the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory (MRO) near Boolardy 26°59′S 116°32′E / 26.983°S 116.533°E / -26.983; 116.533 in Western Australia 315 km north-east of Geraldton on a flat desert-like plain at an elevation of about 460 metres. The most distant stations will be located in New Zealand.
South Africa: The core site is located at 30°43′16.068″S 21°24′40.068″E / 30.72113°S 21.41113°E / -30.72113; 21.41113 at an elevation of about 1000 metres in the Karoo area of the arid Northern Cape Province, about 75 km north-west of Carnarvon, with distant stations in Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia and Zambia.
On 10 March 2012 it was reported that the SKA Site Advisory Committee had made a confidential report in February that the South African bid was stronger. The final decision on the site to be made by the projects board of directors was expected on 4 April 2012. However a scientific working group was set up to explore possible implementation options of the two candidate host regions, and its report was expected in mid May 2012.
On 25 May 2012 it was announced that the SKA will be split over both the South African and African sites and the Australia and New Zealand sites.
Read more about this topic: Square Kilometre Array