LOFAR - A European VLBI-array for radio astronomy

Colloquium given at the Astrophysikalisches Institut Potsdam (AIP) on 10 September 2010

O. Wucknitz [1]

  1. Argelander-Institut für Astronomie, Auf dem Hügel 71, 53121 Bonn, Germany

Abstract

The LOw Frequency ARray (LOFAR) is a new radio interferometry array that is currently being completed in the Netherlands and a couple of other countries. LOFAR covers the frequency range 10-270 MHz in which radio astronomy has started but which has been largely neglected since then. The stations outside of the Netherlands (currently four of them in Germany) are particularly important to reach sub-arcsec resolution and turn LOFAR into a true VLBI array.
This talk gives an introduction into the principles of radio interferometry and LOFAR and shows some early successes with an emphasis on long-baseline, high-resolution work. LOFAR has already produced the first ever high-resolution images of the sky at wavelengths of several metres.



download original presentation
PDF file (6.6 MB, last change 12 Sep 2010)
75 pages (including 17 with supplementary material), suitable for presentation with acroread. This version also includes some hyperlinks for quick navigation and links to references.

download printable version (small)
PDF file (4.6 MB, last change 12 Sep 2010)
Paper saving version. 9 pages, text in b/w, colour figures. 8 slides per A4 page.

download movie 1: ionospheric TEC movie
GIF file (982.6 kB, last change 1 Dec 2006)

download movie 2: single-band delay/rate 3C196 20 Aug 2009, DE-NL
GIF file (700.0 kB, last change 29 Sep 2009)

download movie 3: the Sun with 1 sec integration time per step, real duration 30 sec, about 10:17:10 - 10:17:40 on 9-Jun-2010, plays in real-time
MPEG4 movie (129.9 kB, last change 8 Jul 2010)

download movie 4: incoherent all-band delay/rate 3C48 NL-NL with CygA+CasA
GIF file (21.3 MB, last change 29 Sep 2009)

download movie 5: the Sun with 10 sec integration time per step, real duration ca. 10 min, about 10:16:30 - 10:26:20 on 9-Jun-2010, plays 100 times faster than real-time
MPEG4 movie (176.3 kB, last change 8 Jul 2010)


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Script last modified on 7 Sep 2010
Last change to this data base entry on 12 Sep 2010