Access to LOFAR

How to get access to LOFAR facilities and become a participant in the project

• If you are part of one of the Astronomical Key Science Projects, please use your designated contact person.
• If you are part of one of the International partners of LOFAR, please contact your designated contact person.
• If you are not part of any of the above, please contact us through the ASTRON helpdesk.

You will need the Science Data Centre (SDC) Operations group to grant you access, unless you are already a member in MoM of the project you are trying to access data for. Once you have access and updated your password you should use the Long Term Archive manual.

Before you access any Lofar system, please take notice of our General User Access Policy (GUAP)

Once you are a participant of the project and you need access to the CEP systems as a programmer or scientist, you will need this information:

• Get your contact person (e.g. SDC Operations) to request an account on the systems and specify what permissions you'll need.
• Ensure that you can enter the portal node (portal.lofar.eu) with your new account.
• Learn the basics of the Lofar Login Environment available at Central Processing.
• Learn the overall layout and use of the central processing (CEP) systems
• Learn how to use ssh keys, ssh-agents and ssh port forwarding.
• Learn how to use a VNC server
• Learn how to use the FreeNX client for compressed X11 output.
• Choosing strong passwords.

You will have to register. See The LOFAR wiki start page.