ThunderKAT will have commensal access to all MeerKAT survey data; this is a novel approach to transients survey science and pioneers the way transients will be searched for with the SKA.

The ThunderKAT real-time transient (TK RTT) detection and imaging pipeline will reside in the Karoo close to the MeerKAT array, where it will ingest data every 0.5 second in search of fast transients. It will search for radio transients in real-time on two different time scales: seconds and hours.

The ThunderKAT radio variability database (TK RVD) will process the time- and frequency-averaged calibrated visibilities off-site in search of transient and variability behaviour on a logarithmic range of time scales (seconds – hours – days – weeks – months – years).