SKA Science and Coordination with Multi-messenger facilities

Abstract

The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) will be the world’s largest radio telescope. Even in its first stage of deployment (SKA1) it will enable transformational science on a very broad range of scientific objectives. The year 2019 is pivotal for the SKA, as it sees both the transition between the design and construction phases, and between the current Organization and the SKA Observatory as an Inter-Governmental Organization. The SKA will share the stage with several other instruments targeting other wavelengths and other messengers: LIGO, JWST, ALMA, E-ELT, CTA, ATHENA, just to cite some of them. Coordinated observations between these facilities can result in greatly enhanced scientific discoveries, and give the potential to progress our understanding of a wide range of astronomical sources and phenomena.