Workshop Overview


For a practical overview of all meetings, click here.

 

On December 1st, 2012, the International LOFAR Telescope (ILT) began operations for its first cycle of regular observing projects from the broader astronomical community. With the start of Cycle 0 operations, LOFAR is now officially open for business and the coming year is certain to produce a wide range of exciting new science. This process has of course been underway steadily during the past year with over a dozen of LOFAR's first science papers from the commissioning period either already in print or working their way through the publication process. Most of the results now finding their way into the journals were initially presented over a year ago at the first LOFAR science workshop held in Dalfsen in the Netherlands.

Since that meeting, the LOFAR observatory has changed dramatically with the addition of more stations, improvements in the sensitivity and pointing of the stations themselves, and of course a steady increase in the performance of the processing software. Throughout these changes, the commissioning effort has continued unabated with steady progress in the MSSS calibration survey as well as a marked improvement in the LOFAR data quality. Given the many enhancements to the array and so many new science results in progress, it is a perfect time for another collaboration meeting in the spirit of the original 2011 Dalfsen meeting. This year, in addition to the science workshop, the next ILT Single Station Owners and Technical Operations meetings will be co-organized during the same week allowing attendees to join one or more these meetings with the same trip.

Also, the LOFAR KSP PIs meeting is organized on 18 March. The ILT Board meeting will be held on 21 March. For these meetings, registration is not necessary as the usual members will be invited to attend these meetings.

 

 

Collaboration Science Workshop

The Science Workshop will span two full days, March 19th and 20th, and include a mixture of presentations as well as time for discussion. We anticipate a variety of talks on technical developments, software enhancements, improvements in calibration and imaging techniques, and of course new scientific results from the commissioning programme. If you are interested in giving a presentation, please submit a title and abstract using the online submission form. You will need to first register for the workshop before you will be able to submit an abstract. The deadline for abstract submission is February 15, 2013. Based on the submitted abstracts, the SOC will select the final programme. We anticipate a very full programme, so be sure to get your submission in on time.

The 2013 workshop will once again be held at the conference centre Mooirivier in Dalfsen (see http://www.mooirivier.nl/ ). A workshop dinner will be planned on the night of March 19 for all workshop attendees. As with the previous Dalfsen meeting, we expect a full programme for the two days, so many attendees may want to arrive in the evening of March 18 and possibly depart on the morning of March 21st. Please keep these dates  in mind when planning your travel. Free shuttle buses will be arranged to run between the conference center and the train station in Dalfsen on March, 18, 19,and 20. For the remainder of the week, taxis may be arranged to reach either the Dalfsen or Zwolle railway stations.

 

For the participants list, click here.

 

 

ILT Single Station Owners Meeting

This annual meeting brings together the local teams and the users of the different international LOFAR stations. This meeting is an opportunity to discuss issues related to the installation, administration, and scientific and educational use of LOFAR stations in "single station" mode, i.e. when they are not connected to the overall LOFAR network. The international teams are working on various novel aspects of "single station" software, calibration, and even hardware enhancements. These meetings represent a chance for the teams to maintain a maximum of cohesion, exchange information and ideas, and help the collaboration get the most out of LOFAR at both the national and international level. The meeting is in principle open to all interested members of the collaboration and will take place following the Science Workshop on Thursday, March 21st, 2013. If you would like to attend the meeting, please indicate your interest on the registration form and contact Harm Munk (munk@astron.nl).

 

For the agenda of the ILT Single Station Owners meeting, click here.

 

For the participants list, click here.

 

 

ILT Technical Operations Meeting

The final meeting of the week will be the ILT Technical Operations meeting on Friday, March 22, 2013. This meeting provides an opportunity for members of the technical staff from the various international LOFAR stations to discuss issues related to station operations, scheduling, and maintenance. Attendance for this meeting is limited to technical personnel involved in the operation and maintenance of LOFAR stations. If you would like to attend the meeting, please indicate your interest on the registration form and contact Harm Munk (munk@astron.nl).

 

For the agenda of the ILT Technical Operations meeting, click here

 

 

For the participants list, click here.