Overview of meetings


The International LOFAR Telescope (ILT) consortium will host a week of meetings and workshops for the LOFAR community from April 7-11, 2014 in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. The week will begin on Monday afternoon with a LOFAR Users Meeting, open to the whole LOFAR community, organized by the Radio Observatory to provide a forum for users to both learn about the status of the array as well as provide feedback. Following the Users Meeting, the 2014 LOFAR Community Science workshop will kick off on Tuesday morning, April 8 and run through the end of the day on Wednesday, April 9. The week will conclude with a two-day worksop on April 10 and 11 devoted to discussing the status and scientific exploitation of LOFAR’s first all-sky survey, the Multifrequency Snapshot Sky Survey (MSSS). Participants can choose to attend one or both of the workshops when registering for the meeting and a two-tier registration fee is available depending on which option is selected.

 

 

LOFAR Users meeting, 7 April 2014

On Monday afternoon, staff from the ASTRON Radio Observatory will hold the first in what is planned to be an annual series of meetings for the LOFAR users community. This meeting is open to anyone from the community and is intended to bring together members of the LOFAR Key Science Projects (KSPs), researchers with approved LOFAR projects, potential users of LOFAR, and representatives from the ASTRON Radio Observatory (RO). This meeting will be an opportunity for ASTRON RO staff to demonstrate the current status of the LOFAR instrument and to highlight plans for future development of software and procedures. For the users, this meeting provides an important forum for discussion and they will have the opportunity to provide their feedback on LOFAR operations and development, and highlight, when required, the need for improvement or change. Attendance from all LOFAR users is highly encouraged. The meeting will take place on Monday, April 7 from 13:30-18:00. If you plan to take part in the meeting, please indicate your intention to attend on the registration page here.
For the programme of the LOFAR Users Meeting, click here.

 

 

The 2014 LOFAR Community Science Workshop 8 + 9 April 2014

This workshop represents the third annual meeting of the LOFAR science collaboration since the onset of regular LOFAR science operations. These workshops aim to bring together members of the wider collaboration including active members of the Key Science Project teams as well as various EU and international members of the LOFAR user community. This two-day workshop will feature a wide range of talks on technical developments, software enhancements, improvements in calibration and imaging techniques, and of course exciting new scientific results from the Cycle 0 and Cycle 1 observing programs. The workshop program will cover the gamut of the LOFAR science case from cosmology and extragalactic research to Galactic, planetary, and solar system topics. Special emphasis will be given in the program to younger members of the collaboration to allow them a chance to showcase their results.

For the programme of the LOFAR Science Workshop, click here.

 

 

First Science with LOFAR’s First All-Sky Survey, 10 + 11 April 2014

The series of workshops will conclude with a symposium on scientific exploitation of LOFAR’s first all-sky survey, the Multifrequency Snapshot Sky Survey (MSSS). Initially designed as a commissioning exercise, MSSS is a shallow but broadband (30-74 and 120-160 MHz) survey that probes new regions of parameter space for radio surveys. The expected public data release of the first MSSS catalog and image mosaics (HBA only) is in mid-2014. Before the public release, an extensive quality control process will take place and lead directly to a broad range of scientific output, including studies of galaxies and clusters, variability and transient studies, searches for polarization, and searches for newly identified sources in classes such as pulsars, giant radio galaxies, and cluster halos. We aim to bring together the leaders of these and other ongoing and future science projects based on MSSS data, in order to summarize progress, coordinate activity, and encourage the worldwide radio community to exploit MSSS for their own science goals. We will also discuss perspectives for future MSSS data releases, synergy with other survey efforts, motivate the transition to the planned deeper LOFAR surveys that are to come in the next few years, and look forward to future surveys with the SKA.

For the programme of the MSSS workshop, click here.

 

 

Social programme

Welcoming reception 7 April 18:00-19:30, Rode Hoed
Participants are welcome to join the welcoming reception hosted by the International LOFAR Telescope. You do not need to register for this reception. The welcoming reception will be at De Rode Hoed, the meeting venue for all meetings during the LOFAR Science Week 2014 in Amsterdam. See the logistics page on how to reach De Rode Hoed.

 

Workshop dinner 8 April, Pakhuis De Zwijger
The Science Workshop dinner will be hosted in the large room at Pakhuis De Zwijger. This is a monumental, former cooling warehouse at the south banks of the IJ lake, 2 kilometres from Amsterdam Central Station. The foyer has a beautiful view over the IJ.
In a special construction, a bridge has been made underneath the warehouse connecting the Java island with the city.
Address: Piet Heinkade 179, Amsterdam. Phone +31 (0)20-7884444.

More information about dinner times and a route description will follow later.

 

Workshop dinner 10 April, Kantjil & De Tijger
The MSSS Workshop dinner will be hosted at Indonesian restaurant Kantjil & De Tijger. See http://www.kantjil.nl/en/

More information about dinner times and a route description will follow later.