The second LOFAR Data Processing School takes place on Oct. 11-15, 2010 at ASTRON in Dwingeloo, The Netherlands. The school is hosted by the Radio Observatory at ASTRON and the LOFAR project.
There are 40 participants in the school. 

 

The schedule of the school can be found here (PDF file).

 

This year will see the International LOFAR Telescope (ILT) transition from a construction project to an operating observatory. At the present time, the rollout of the ILT is well past its halfway point with over 30stations in various states of construction both in the Netherlandsand abroad. In parallel, first versions of several of LOFAR's science pipelines are coming online and beginning to generate scientific data products. As the stream of data has increased, commissioning activities have increased to match with teams of commissioners gathering regularly to test these new results. These activities will reach a new high next year with the kickoff of LOFAR's first all-sky calibration survey.

As with the first LOFAR data school, the aim of this workshop is to introduce new members of the collaboration who will be involved in the commissioning effort to the LOFAR system so students, postdocs, and staff were all encouraged to apply.

 

The school will cover the many aspects of the LOFAR system from the capabilities of the basic station hardware to the software pipelines and science products they produce. Sixteen 45min lectures and tutorials will be presented by members of the LOFAR project team as wellas staff from the many institutions involved in the collaboration. Hands-on sessions will also be provided to give attendees an opportunityto gain experience with real LOFAR data.

Presentations will be given at a level appropriate for someone new to the LOFAR. Familiarity with the concepts of radio interferometry and standard data processing software such as CASA, AIPS, or Myriad will be useful but not required. Minimum requirements should include familiaritywith scripting languages and in particular Python.

Attendance is limited to approximately 40 people. Initial preference was given to applicants from members of teams with accepted early access commissioning projects and other national or international partners contributing to the commissioning effort. Space however was reserved for applicants from the general astronomical community, so all potential LOFAR users were encouraged to apply. Workshop attendees will be responsible for their own travel and accommodation costs while attending the workshop.

 

Presentations: 

G. Heald: Introduction to Low Frequency Radio Astronomy (pdf)

M. Wise: Lofar Overview (pdf)

M. Norden: LOFAR System Overview(pdf)

D. Rafferty: RFI and Compression(pdf)

J. Romein: Correlator and Online Processing(pdf)

G. de Bruyn: Introduction to Calibration(pdf)

J. van Zwieten: Calibrating LOFAR Data (BBS)(pdf)

L. Birzan: Calibrating LOFAR Data (CARMA)(pdf)

M. Haverkorn: Polarization(pdf)

I. van Bemmel: Ionospheric Effects(pdf)

R. Nijboer: Wideifield Imaging(pdf)

J.-M. Griessmeier: Dynamic Spectra with LOFAR(pdf)

J. Anderson: VLBI with LOFAR(pdf)

A. Polatidis: Observing with LOFAR (pdf)

C. James: Particle Physics with LOFAR(pdf)

J. Hessels: High Time Resolution(Movie mp4)

A. Alexov: Observing Pulsars with LOFAR (pdf)

Colloquium: "Planetary Science with LOFAR and more" Phillippe Zarka (pdf)

 

Tarball of all presentations

 

Excercises  (J. McKean)

Exercise 1: Introduction (pdf), Quick starting guide (pdf), NDPPP (pdf)

Exercise 2: Imaging Cygnus A with CASA (pdf)

Exercise 3: Calibrating Cygnus A with BBS (pdf)

Exercise 4: RM Synthesis (pdf) (M. Haverkorn)