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First German Lofar station
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LOFAR, the Low Frequency Array, is a new European radio telescope under construction by ASTRON
in the Netherlands, operating in the largely unexplored frequency range
between 10 and 240 MHz. LOFAR leads the way for a new generation of
radio telescopes, like the planned Square Kilometre Array,
consisting of a multitude of small and cheep antennas without moving
parts. The digital radio images are synthesized in supercomputer in
real time. The innovative design of digital beam-forming will allow to
point the telescope simultaneously at several positions on sky. In
principle, the whole visible radio sky can be monitored continuously.
LOFAR will consist of 40 stations in the Netherlands (Fig.1) and 6
stations in Germany (Fig. 2), each with 96 x 2 dipoles for the
frequency range 10-80 MHz and 48 x 16 or 96 x 16 antennas,
respectively, for the
range 110-240 MHz. The first German station was built since 2007 next
to the 100-m Effelsberg radio telescope and completed in July 2009, the
second near Tautenburg (Thüringen) was completed in November 2009, the
third German stations near Garching (Unterweilenbach) in 2010, the
fourth and fifth stations in Bornim near Potsdam and in Jülich in 2011.
Fig. 3 shows all planned European stations. The stations in Chilbolton
(southern England) and Nancay
(south of Orleans, central France) are operating, that in Onsala
(southwestern Sweden) follows soon. More stations in the Poland, UK,
Italy, Ireland and Finland are
planned. LOFAR was officially opened by the Dutch Queen on
12 June 2010. Presently, 30 Dutch and five German stations plus the stations
in the UK and France are operating in
the test phase. Regular observations will start in autumn 2012.
The 12 participating German institutes are organized in GLOW (German Long
Wavelength Consortium). Their main scientific interests are the Epoch
of Reionization, when the first cosmic gas structures formed, magnetic
fields and cosmic rays in our Milky Way, in galaxies and in jets, and
solar radio emission.
New: LOFAR article in the Max Planck Yearbook 2012 (in German)
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