As the largest radio telescope in the world, the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) will lead the next generation of radio astronomy. The feats of engineering required to construct the telescope array will be matched only by the techniques developed to exploit the rich scientific value of the data. To drive forward the development of efficient and accurate analysis methods, we are designing a series of data challenges that will provide the scientific community with high-quality datasets for testing and evaluating new techniques. In this paper we present a description and results from the first such Science Data Challenge (SDC1). Based on SKA MID continuum simulated observations and covering three frequencies (560 MHz, 1400MHz and 9200 MHz) at three depths (8 h, 100 h and 1000 h), SDC1 asked participants to apply source detection, characterization and classification methods to simulated data. The challenge opened in November 2018, with nine teams submitting results by the deadline of April 2019. In this work we analyse the results for 8 of those teams, showcasing the variety of approaches that can be successfully used to find, characterise and classify sources in a deep, crowded field. The results also demonstrate the importance of building domain knowledge and expertise on this kind of analysis to obtain the best performance. As high-resolution observations begin revealing the true complexity of the sky, one of the outstanding challenges emerging from this analysis is the ability to deal with highly resolved and complex sources as effectively as the unresolved source population.

We consider the best today available observations of the Sun free of turbulent Earth atmospheric effects, taken with the Solar Optical Telescope (SOT) onboard the Hinode spacecraft. Both the instrumental smearing and the observed stray light are analyzed in order to improve the resolution. The Point Spread Function (PSF) corresponding to the blue continuum Broadband Filter Imager (BFI) near 450 nm is deduced by analyzing i/ the limb of the Sun and ii/ images taken during the transit of the planet Venus in 2012. A combination of Gaussian and Lorentzian functions is selected to construct a PSF in order to remove both smearing due to the instrumental diffraction effects (PSF core) and the large-angle stray light due to the spiders and central obscuration (wings of the PSF) that are responsible for the parasitic stray light. A Max-likelihood deconvolution procedure based on an optimum number of iterations is discussed. It is applied to several solar field images, including the granulation near the limb. The normal non-magnetic granulation is compared to the abnormal granulation which we call magnetic. A new feature appearing for the first time at the extreme-limb of the disk (the last 100 km) is discussed in the context of the definition of the solar edge and of the solar diameter. A single sunspot is considered in order to illustrate how effectively the restoration works on the sunspot core. A set of 125 consecutive deconvolved images is assembled in a 45 min long movie illustrating the complexity of the dynamical behavior inside and around the sunspot.

We analyze the light curve of 1740 flare stars to study the relationship between the magnetic feature characteristics and the identified flare activity. Coverage and stability of magnetic features are inspired by rotational modulation of light curve variations and flare activity of stars are obtained using our automated flare detection algorithm. The results show that (i) Flare time occupation ratio (or flare frequency) and total power of flares increase by increasing relative magnetic feature coverage and contrast in F-M type stars (ii) Magnetic feature stability is highly correlated with the coverage and the contrast of the magnetic structures as this is the case for the Sun (iii) Stability, coverage and contrast of the magnetic features, time occupation ratio and total power of flares increases for G, K and M-type stars by decreasing Rossby number due to the excess of produced magnetic field from dynamo procedure until reaching to saturation level.

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