Taming the beast: operating the world's largest low-frequency radio observatory LOFAR

Arno P. Schoenmakers

doi:10.1117/12.926521

13 September 2012 Taming the beast: operating the world's largest low-frequency radio observatory LOFAR

Arno P. Schoenmakers

Proceedings Volume 8448, Observatory Operations: Strategies, Processes, and Systems IV; 844819 (2012) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.926521
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2012, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Abstract

The construction of the Low-Frequency Array (LOFAR) radio telescope is nearly finished. LOFAR is currently being prepared to run a large variety of science projects for the years to come. LOFAR is a geographically widely distributed radio telescope consisting of, currently, 41 separate stations, or antenna fields. The majority of stations is situated in the northern part of the Netherlands. These Dutch stations are complemented by 8 stations in Germany, France, UK and Sweden. LOFAR uses a novel design with phased array technology for the antenna fields. It is built to receive sky signals with frequencies between 10 and 250 MHz, for which is uses two different types of antenna. LOFAR stations produce up to 4 Gb/s of digital data each, which are sent to a central processing facility hosted by the University of Groningen computing center, CIT. There the data streams are combined and processed to produce astronomically meaningful data. The processed data is archived in several large datacenters and made available to end-users. LOFAR produces science for radio pulsar studies, cosmic ray studies, sensitive wide-field imaging and many other applications. Much of the flexibility of LOFAR has been made possible by the abundant use of software and general purpose programmable hardware in its design. The versatility and geographical spread of the telescope stations and its resources leads to fascinating challenges in operations and maintenance. In this presentation I will present the operational concepts and challenges of the LOFAR telescope, and the solutions the LOFAR team has created for these.

Citation Download Citation

Arno P. Schoenmakers "Taming the beast: operating the world's largest low-frequency radio observatory LOFAR", Proc. SPIE 8448, Observatory Operations: Strategies, Processes, and Systems IV, 844819 (13 September 2012); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.926521

ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE

INSTITUTIONAL
Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.

SELECT YOUR INSTITUTION

PERSONAL
Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.

PERSONAL SIGN IN

No SPIE Account? Create one

PURCHASE THIS CONTENT

SUBSCRIBE TO DIGITAL LIBRARY

50 downloads per 1-year subscription

Members: $195

Non-members: $335 ADD TO CART

25 downloads per 1 - year subscription

Members: $145

Non-members: $250 ADD TO CART

PURCHASE SINGLE ARTICLE

Includes PDF, HTML & Video, when available

Members: $17.00

Non-members: $21.00 ADD TO CART

PROCEEDINGS
10 PAGES

DOWNLOAD PAPER SAVE TO MY LIBRARY

GET CITATION

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

Get copyright permission Get copyright permission on Copyright Marketplace

KEYWORDS

Antennas

Databases

Navigation systems

Data processing

Data storage

Radio telescopes

Telescopes

Show All Keywords

Keywords/Phrases

Search In:

Publication Years