International stations

LOFAR attracts a growing community that also would like to contribute to the LOFAR adventure. This is the general information page for the (potential) international partners of LOFAR.

A document has been drafted detailing the site requirements, the placement and the layout of a LOFAR station on an LOFAR site in countries outside the Netherlands (stations in the Netherlands have a different layout). This document tries to address a lot of questions that we are frequently asked.

• International Site Requirement Document (living document, last update November 25, 2008)
• Requirements crane for field positioning of the HBA tiles
• HBA anchor installation guide
• International LOFAR station network description (last update September 30, 2008)
• LOFAR Container specification

If you have more questions, you would like to visit us or you would like us to visit you, please contact Corina Vogt (vogt<at>astron.nl)

At the moment, there are the following countries planning to add station to LOFAR or have them already funded:

• Germany - Five stations funded and in various stages of completion (Effelsberg, Garching, Potsdam, Tautenburg, Juelich).
• UK - One station funded and completed (Chilbolton); Three more planned
• France - One station funded and completed (Nancay); Super station planned
• Sweden - One station funded and under construction (Onsala)
• Finland - One prototype-station funded (Kilpisjärvi) for ESICAT testing
• Poland - Three station planned (Torun, Krakow, Jelena Gora)
• Austria/Ukraine - One station planned
• Italy - One station planned
• Ireland - One station planned

On Google Maps that looks like (green: funded station, yellow: funded but no place found yet, red: planned station):

On the uv-plane this looks like:

At the various countries that are already involved in LOFAR, consortia exist. The contact details for the people in these countries being involved in LOFAR can be found below:

• Netherlands:

• Germany: German Long Wavelength Consortium (GLOW)
  • Web home: http://blogger.astro.rub.de/glow
  • As of 2008 May 06:
  • Chair: Ralf-Juergen Dettmar (dettmar<at>astro.rub.de)
  • Vice-chair: Marcus Brueggen (m.brueggen<at>jacobs-university.de)
  • Secretary: Matthias Hoef(hoeft<at>tls-tautenburg.de)
  • Technical Working Group Chair: James M Anderson (anderson<at>mpifr-bonn.mpg.de)
  • Scientific Working Group Chair: Benedetta Ciardi (ciardi<at>mpa-garching.mpg.de)
  • KSP Contact List
    • EoR: Benedetta Ciardi (ciardi<at>mpa-garching.mpg.de)
    • Surveys: Marcus Brueggen (m.brueggen<at>jacobs-university.de)
    • Transients: Jochen Eisloeffel (jochen<at>tls-tautenburg.de)
    • Cosmic Rays: ???
    • Cosmic Magnetism: Rainer Beck (PI) (rbeck<at>mpifr-bonn.mpg.de)
    • Solar: Gottfried Mann (PI) (GMann<at>aip.de)
  • ARC Representatives
    • Rainer Beck (rbeck<at>mpifr-bonn.mpg.de)
      • Benedetta Ciardi, alternate (ciardi<at>mpa-garching.mpg.de)
  • LOFAR TWG Representatives
    • James Anderson, Magnetism KSP, (anderson<at>mpifr-bonn.mpg.de)
    • Christian Vocks, Solar KSP, (vocks<at>aip.de)
  • LAD Representatives
    • Rainer Beck, Magnetism KSP, (rbeck<at>mpifr-bonn.mpg.de)
      • James Anderson, alternate, Magnetism KSP, (anderson<at>mpifr-bonn.mpg.de)
    • Christian Vocks, Solar KSP, (vocks<at>aip.de)
      • Gottfried Mann, alternate, Magnetism KSP, (GMann<at>aip.de)
  • Station Contact List
    • DE601 (Effelsberg) James M Anderson (anderson<at>mpifr-bonn.mpg.de)
    • DE602 (Garching) Benedetta Ciardi (ciardi<at>mpa-garching.mpg.de)
    • DE603 (Tautenburg) Jochen Eisloeffel (jochen<at>tls-tautenburg.de)
    • DE604 (Potsdam) Gottfried Mann (PI) (GMann<at>aip.de)
    • DE605 (Juelich) Marcus Brueggen (m.brueggen<at>jacobs-university.de)

• UK:
  • LOFAR-UK is a consortium of 23 partner universities and research laboratories.
  • Project leaders: Rob Fender (Southampton and Amsterdam; rpf<at>phys.soton.ac.uk) and Steve Rawlings (Oxford; sr<at>astro.ox.ac.uk)
  • Web home: http://www.lofar-uk.org
  • Station Contact List
    • UK608 (Chilbolton) Derek McKay-Bukowski (lofar-net<at>stfc.ac.uk)

• France:
  • Station Contact List
    • FR606 (Nancay) Jean-Mathias Griessmeier (jean-mathias.griessmeier<at>cnrs-orleans.fr)

• Sweden:
  • The Swedish LOFAR station at Onsala is owned and operated by Onsala Space Observatory. The LOFAR-Sweden consortium consists of individual members at Swedish universities and research institutes.
    • Web home: http://www.lofar-se.org

• Poland:

• Italy:

• Austria/Ukraine:

• Ireland
  • Proposal stage only.
  • Web home: http://www.lofar.ie/

• Finland
  • KAIRA (Kilpisjärvi Atmospheric Imaging Receiver Array)
  • Organisation: Sodankylä Geophysical Observatory
  • Web home: http://www.sgo.fi/KAIRA
  • Station Contact List
    • KAIRA (Kilpisjärvi) Project Team (karia<at>sgo.fi)