Session: INS4 – LOFAR, the LOw Frequency ARray: Ongoing Developments and Early Results.

Conveners: Mario M. Bisi (Institute of Mathematics and Physics, Aberystwyth University, Wales), Michael W. Wise (Astronomy Group, ASTRON – Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy, The Netherlands), Philip Best (School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, Scotland), Benjamin W. Stappers (The School of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Manchester, England), Peter T. Gallagher (School of Physics, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland), and Marcus Brüggen (School of Engineering & Science, Jacobs University, Germany).

Meeting Website: http://www.jb.man.ac.uk/nam/ – listing the full details of the meeting and how to go about registering (deadline: 12 March 2012) and submitting abstracts (deadline: 03 February 2012).

Session Description: The LOw Frequency ARray (LOFAR) is a next-generation radio telescope which utilises thousands of stationary dipoles and tiles to observe celestial phenomena. This session is intended for the joint communities of NAM/GAG/UKSP/MIST to learn about the developments of LOFAR including updates on the status of the system and its current scientific capabilities, the early science results from all aspects of its applications and operation, as well as the upcoming opportunities for general “open skies” observing. The LOFAR dipoles and tiles are grouped into various ‘stations’ which are centred on the Netherlands with additional stations across Europe. In The Netherlands, a total of 40 LOFAR stations are nearing completion with an initial eight international stations already deployed in Germany, France, Sweden, and the UK (and at least four more expected between Poland and Germany by the end of 2013). With its dense core array and interferometric baselines of up to 1,000 km, LOFAR has the potential to achieve both unparalleled sensitivity (sub-mJy) and spatial resolution (sub-arcsecond) in this largely-unexplored low-frequency radio regime (~10 MHz to 250 MHz). It is also a key pathfinder for the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) and its technology and design remit are presently being used as an initial test bed for the future EISCAT_3D system to be based across northern Scandinavia. LOFAR will be able to survey wide areas of the sky all at once and will open up a new window for astronomers, astrophysicists, cosmologists, and solar/space scientists alike. Areas of science which can be explored with LOFAR include, but are not limited to, the Epoch of Re-ionisation (EoR), Pulsars, Transients, Cosmic Rays, Magnetism, deep Extra-Galactic Surveys, and also studies of the Sun, the Solar Atmosphere/Solar Wind, Space Weather, and the Earth’s Ionosphere/Atmosphere. In summary, the session is designed for showcasing LOFAR’s scientific potential and progress to date. The session should include a LOFAR overview and specifics of LOFAR commissioning, current status, scientific and technical capabilities, and upcoming opportunities. We solicit contributions from any/all of the science areas that will be covered by the observational capabilities of LOFAR which would include contributed abstracts on the early space, solar, solar wind, ionosphere, and solar system studies, the early results from the galactic and extra-galactic science which will also include pulsars, magnetism, cosmology and the Epoch of Re-ionisation (EoR) work to date.

http://www.jb.man.ac.uk/nam/