10 YEARS OF LOFAR HIGHLIGHTS

12 JUNE 2020
10 years of LOFAR highlights

Table of contents
RSP boards make sure beamforming is possible 3
Why lightning often strikes twice 4
Infographic: Interference detection and Dysco 5
Super-slow pulsar challenges theory 6
Using the existing SurfNet infrastructure to connect international stations and its European counterparts 7
The construction and use of our own broadband optical data transport system 8
Infographic: The evolution of LOFAR supercomputers 9
Revisiting the Fanaroff-Riley dichotomy and radio-galaxy morphology with the LOFAR Two-Metre Sky Survey 10
Infographic: Off the shelf GPU’s 11
A complete image of the visible sky every second 12
The LOFAR Two-metre Sky Survey 13
Improved upper limits on the 21 cm signal power spectrum of neutral hydrogen at z ≈ 9.1 from LOFAR 14
LOFAR pioneers new way to study exoplanet environments 15
A large light-mass component of cosmic rays at 1017-1017.5 eV from radio observations 16
The use of a monitor & control system that monitors a physically widely distributed instrument 17
A LOFAR View of the Turbulent Ionosphere 20
Pulsar shows sudden mood swings 22
Gentle reenergization of electrons in merging galaxy clusters 23
The use of GPS receivers and rubidium modules to sync the stations 24
The TBB boards that act as a time machine 25
Searching for extreme pulsars 28
Simultaneous LBA and HBA observing 29
A brain transplant for LOFAR 31
Detecting SMBH particles 33
High-precision clock to all Dutch stations 34
A new specification and scheduling system 35
LOFAR expands to Italy 36
Cranking up LOFAR’s robustness 37
Habitability of alien worlds 38
Live warning system to study solar eruptions 40
On 12 June 2020, LOFAR celebrated its tenth anniversary. The radio telescope is
the world’s largest low frequency instrument and is one of the pathfinders of the
Square Kilometre Array (SKA), which is currently being developed. Throughout
its ten years of operation, LOFAR has made some amazing discoveries. It has been
a key part of groundbreaking research, both in astronomy and engineering. Here
we feature some – but definitely not all – of these past highlights, as well as some
highlights we look forward to with LOFAR 2.0.
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10 years of LOFAR highlights

RSP boards make sure beamforming is possible

LOFAR is the first radio telescope of its size, wherein tens of thousands of small
antenna elements are used instead of a few big dishes, as was more common in
radio astronomy. All these antennas generate enormous amounts of data 24/7.

The first stage of combining all that data and reducing it for subsequent stages is done
by the Remote Station Processing (RSP) board. A complex board equipped with 5 high-
end Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA) at the time of installation. The processing
load of each Dutch station was distributed over 12 of these boards. These boards were
all serialized to each other, each board processing its partial sum. The last board in the
chain calculated the final station output product. The RSP boards resulted in the first
large scale beamformer systems applied in radio astronomy.

The main cost driver of the RSP boards were the FPGAs, which were tendered after the
prototype design was complete. We had to completely re-factor the RSP board because
the competitor vendor was awarded for the tender. The consequence was a re-design of
the board and porting the existing firmware to the FPGA type of the awarded vendor.

During the RSP board design one of the ambitions was to be able to off-load all incoming
data for later use. Unfortunately at that time the cost impact did not justify the “nice to
have” functionality. As a consequence, LOFAR functionality added to LOFAR later, like
AARTFAAC, costed extra design effort to realize. However, in LOFAR2.0 all of the incoming
data can potentially be offloaded because the selected hardware (UniBoard^2) has
much more IO capability.

Prototype of RSP board with the Altera FPGA, which was later replaced by a Xilinx FPGA.
(Credit: ASTRON)
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Why lightning often strikes twice

Although the saying goes ‘lightning never strikes the same place twice’, in fact it The reason why the needles have never been seen before lies in the ‘supreme
often does. Why it does so however, has long remained a mystery, but in 2019 a capabilities’ of LOFAR, says Dr Brian Hare, first author of the paper: ‘These needles can
team of scientists led by the University of Groningen (RUG) used LOFAR to shed have a length of 100 metres and a diameter of less than five metres, and are too small
light on this matter. The radio telescope was able to chart lightning flashes in and too short-lived for other lightning detections systems.’
unprecedented detail, showing structures in the lightning channels the researchers Although LOFAR is developed primarily for radio astronomy observations, this discovery
dubbed needles. Through these needles, a negative charge may cause a repeated proves that it is also very suited for lightning research.
discharge to the ground.

Lightning occurs when strong updrafts generate a kind of static electricity in large
cumulonimbus clouds. Parts of the cloud become positively charged, others negatively.
Once this charge separation is large enough, a violent discharge occurs: lightning. Such
a discharge starts with a plasma, a small area of ionized air hot enough to be electrically
conductive. This small area grows into a forked plasma channel that can reach lengths
of several kilometres. The positive tips of the plasma channel collect negative charges
from the cloud, which pass through the channel to the negative tip, where the charge is
discharged. Lightning produces a large amount of VHF (very high frequency) radio bursts
at the growing tips of the negative channels, while the positive channels show emissions
only along the channel, not at the tip. Since LOFAR can detect signals in the VHF radio
band, it is able to detect lightning propagation at an unprecedented scale and to ‘look’
inside a thundercloud, where most of the lightning resides.

The LOFAR study revealed the occurrence of a break in the discharge channel at a
location where needles are formed. These needles appear to discharge negative charges
from the main channel, which subsequently re-enter the cloud. The reduction of charges
in the channel causes the break. However, once the charge in the cloud becomes high
enough again, the flow through the channel is restored, leading to a second discharge
of lightning. By this mechanism, lightning will strike in the same area repeatedly. The Lightning above the central part of LOFAR. (Credit: Danielle Futselaar)
researchers published their results in the science journal Nature on April 18th.
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Infographic: Interference detection and Dysco

INFOGRAPHIC
LOFAR: Interference detection and data compression

DATA COLLECTION
The Low Frequency Array (LOFAR)
1 INTERFERENCE
DETECTION 2 DYSCO
The next step called Dysco (Dynamical
3 SAVE COMPRESSED
DATA 4
collects radio waves that arrive from the After collecting all these radio waves, a Statistical Compression) then Finally, these cleaned and compressed
sky to earth, which researchers use to process called 'interference detection' compresses these stored data by a data are stored onto hard disks in
investigate the origins of the Universe. filters out the radio waves from these factor 4. This process is comparable to Groningen, so that radio astronomers
However, the radio waves that LOFAR other sources, such as cars, mobile how a RAW-image is compressed into a can access and analyse them for their
collects do not only consist of signals phones and wind turbines. These JPEG-image: a lot of the data are thrown research. An entire night worth of
from space, but also contain radio dozens of terabytes of filtered and out, but crucial data are kept. observations takes only hours to filter,
waves from other sources: intereference. ‘clean’ data per night are then briefly compress and store onto hard disks.
stored onto hard disks, but are much
too extensive to be used for data
analysis.

How LOFAR treats data collected by its stations.

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Super-slow pulsar challenges theory

In 2017 LOFAR detects the slowest spinning radio pulsar

to date. The neutron star spins around once only every
23.5 seconds almost three times more slowly than the
slowest spinning radio pulsar detected up to that point
(8.5 seconds).

The discovery is a joint effort of the University of Manchester,

ASTRON and University of Amsterdam; University of
Manchester PhD-student Chia Min Tan makes the discovery as
part of the LOFAR Tied-Array All-Sky Survey, which searches for
pulsars in the Northern sky. Each survey snapshot of the sky
lasts for one hour, which is much longer compared to previous
surveys. Solely due to this high sensitivity this slow rotating
neutron star, which is approximately 14 million years old, can
be detected.

The fact that such a slow spinning pulsar still emits radio
waves strong enough to detect, challenges the current
theories of how pulsars shine.

Artist’s conception of the 23.5-second pulsar. Radio pulses originating

from a source in the constellation Cassiopeia travel towards the core
of the LOFAR telescope array. (Credit: Danielle Futselaar/ASTRON)
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Using the existing SurfNet infrastructure to connect international stations and

its European counterparts
In addition to the 40 Dutch antenna stations, LOFAR has 14 antenna stations
elsewhere in Europe. Just like the antenna stations in the Netherlands, the
European stations also send their observation data via fiber optic connections to
the central processor (CEP) of LOFAR at Groningen.

In the Netherlands, LOFAR uses its own, dedicated fiber optic network to send
observation data from the stations to CEP. Although such an approach would be possible
for the European part from a technical point of view, a European wide dedicated fiber
optic LOFAR network can not be realised due to the extremely high construction and
maintenance costs. For the European stations, a more cost-effective approach to data
transport was chosen by using the facilities of the National Research and Education
Networks (NRENs) in Europe.

At the time of the construction of LOFAR, so-called Lightpath technology became

available at the European NRENs with which 10 Gb/s point-to-point connections can be
realized. As one of the first users of Lightpath technology, all LOFAR stations in Europe
are equipped with the required broadband, direct connections to Groningen. The
construction of the lightpaths has been realized together with the Dutch NREN Surfnet,
in collaboration with the other NRENs along the various connections. It was important to
configure the interfaces of the NREN router systems in such a way that interconnections
are possible.

Even 10 years after the opening of LOFAR, the LOFAR Lightpaths still provide the direct LOFAR station in Latvia. (Credit: ASTRON)
connections between the European LOFAR stations and Groningen that are required for
the streaming data in the LOFAR telescope.
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The construction and use of our own broadband optical data

transport system
In the Netherlands, the LOFAR telescope consists of
approximately 40 antenna stations that are spread
over the entire North of the Netherlands. The amount
of LOFAR data that needs to be transferred from these
stations is so large that it cannot be sent via the regular
Internet. Specially constructed fiber optic connections
are required to transport a large amount of astronomy
data from the stations to Groningen.

The antenna stations of LOFAR receive astronomical data

which, after an initial processing step, are forwarded to a
central computer system, which is placed at the Center for
Information Technology (CIT) of the RU Groningen. During
the construction of LOFAR, a new fiber optic cable was
installed towards each station. Where possible, this cable
is placed (blown) in an existing tube with other cables. But
in many places, especially close to the antenna stations,
digging also had to be done to get the fiber optic cables in
the ground. Once all fiber optic cables were in place, special
optical communication equipment was purchased via a
tender. In this way, each LOFAR station was equipped with a
10 Gb/s optical connection to the CIT.

To date, this bandwidth has been sufficient to adequately

provide data to all astronomers. Nowadays, consideration is
being given to further increasing the bandwidth from each
station. This possible upgrade can be realized by adjusting
the communication equipment at the stations and at the CIT.
The glass fibers do not need to be adjusted: thanks to their
gigantic potential bandwidth, we can continue with them for
years to come.
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Infographic: The evolution of LOFAR supercomputers

INFOGRAPHIC
The evolution of LOFAR supercomputers
COBALT
2014

73 TFLOPS/s
BLUE GENE/P 4 kW (average)
2008

41.8 TFLOP/s At the heart of LOFAR lies a supercomputer that processes all the
incoming data streams and converts them into astronomy data.
94 kW (peak) The first supercomputer for LOFAR was the IBM Blue Gene/L, which
was quite different from other supercomputers of its day,
combining many processors that had relatively little computing
power each.

Four years later it was replaced by IBM’s Blue Gene/P. Whereas its
predecessor used copper STP cables, Blue Gene/P used fibre
optics, meaning it needed significantly less space. Both COBALT 2.0
supercomputers were already installed before LOFAR was officially
taken into use; only part of their computing capacity was used for 2019
LOFAR. The rest of their computing power was made available to
scientists throughout the Netherlands.
COBALT replaced Blue Gene/P. It was GPU-based and had passively
308 TFLOPS/s
cooled GPU’s, which required custom designed airflow guides to
keep it cool. 6 kW (average)

In 2019, COBALT 2.0 came into use. It will be equipped with a

feature called the LOFAR Mega Mode, in which the supercomputer
can simultaneously process the data of several research projects,
meaning an even greater output in astronomy data.

BLUE GENE/L
2004

34.4 TFLOP/s

134 kW (peak)

The ‘evolution’ of supercomputers used for LOFAR.

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Revisiting the Fanaroff-Riley dichotomy and radio-galaxy

morphology with the LOFAR Two-Metre Sky Survey
It has been known since the 1970s that the radio
structures made by jets from black holes come in two A tradidional, centre-bright low-power radio galaxy Examples of newly found
types: very powerful jets are brightest at the edges and edge-bright low-power radio
weaker jets are brightest in the middle and fade out at galaxies
large distances.

Our work with LOFAR has revealed a new population of

low-power jets with an edge-bright appearance, which was
mostly invisible to previous surveys, and which breaks this
traditional view. These jets seem to live in smaller, less dense
galaxies and so, although relatively weak, they do not get
disrupted early on and can travel undisturbed for hundreds
of thousands of light-years. Because the appearance of the
jet is linked to its interaction with the environment it travels
through, this population could shed new light on how black
holes influence the galaxies and clusters they live in.

This highlight is based on the article Revisiting the Fanaroff-

Riley dichotomy and radio-galaxy morphology with the
LOFAR Two-Metre Sky Survey (LoTSS) Mingo, B.;Croston, J. Credit image on the left: Mingo, Croston & LOFAR surveys team, credit image on the right: Heesen & LOFAR surveys team
H.;Hardcastle, M. J.;Best, P. N.;Duncan, K. J.;Morganti, R.;
Rottgering, H. J. A.; Sabater, J.; Shimwell, T. W.;Williams,
W. L.;Brienza, M.;Gurkan, G.;Mahatma, V. H.;Morabito, L. K.;
Prandoni, I.;Bondi, M.;Ineson, J.;Mooney, S.

doi: 10.1093/mnras/stz1901
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Infographic: Off the shelf GPU’s

INFOGRAPHIC
Off the shelf GPU's for LOFAR
An antenna field receives radio waves from the sky and forms an image of
Cygnus A (CygA), the constellation Swan. These data are processed by a
combination of hardware and software.
CPU’s in the hardware receive the data and transfer them to high-end
GPU’s, which are extremely suited to perform parallel calculations. The
correlator holds 44 GPU’s (and 44 CPU’s) in total, which can process terabits
of data per second. The GPU’s process the data, using complicated algorit-
hms and delete all non-essential data. Then they send the processed data
back to the CPU’s, which forward it to store it onto hard disks.
From the processed data a far more detailed image of Cygnus A is now
produced.

CygA

CygA
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10 years of LOFAR highlights

A complete image of the visible sky every second

The behaviour of black holes and neutron stars can expose some of the most Principal investigator and spiritual father of AARTFAAC is prof. Ralph A.M.J. Wijers from
extreme tests of physical law. Therefore, this behaviour can be used to find answers the University of Amsterdam. AARTFAAC is a collaboration of ASTRON (development
to questions as to how black holes are born and to the origin of magnetic fields and of Uniboard correlators, co-development of software and science exploitation) and
cosmic rays. To be able to observe these extreme and transient objects, one must Oxford Astrophysics/e-Research Centre (station hardware development, co-operation
not only survey large areas of sky, but also do this quickly and often. But how do on streaming data pipeline) and primarily an experimental system, which has taught
you do this? astronomers how to build such an all-sky instrument.

Project AARTFAAC (Amsterdam-ASTRON Radio Transients Facility And Analysis Center) LOFAR can create far more detailed images than AARTFAAC can. It uses far more
is a real-time transient detector. It utilizes 576 LOFAR antennae to create an image of the antennae and observes through a far larger bandwidth than AARTFAAC does. But where
visible sky every second. LOFAR only can capture a small piece of the visible sky simultaneously, AARTFAAC
captures the entire visible sky in a single second.
AARTFAAC creates images of the low frequency radio sky with a spatial resolution of
10 arcseconds. AARTFAAC is able to quickly create sky images. The clever thing is that
AARTFAAC does this simultaneously with, but independently from observations with
LOFAR.

Each second the data of 576 LOFAR antennae are collected at a GPU correlator,
consisting of 20 GPUs (graphic processor units). There, the data are combined
(correlated) with each other. Next. the correlated data are calibrated, and transformed
into sky images. Then, specially developed software analyses these images to determine
whether there are so called transients – sudden changes – present between them. These
transients could point to the aforementioned transient objects.
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The LOFAR Two-metre Sky Survey

A detailed radio image of the entire northern sky in the frequency range of
120-168 MHz. That is what the LOFAR Two-metre Sky Survey (LoTTS) aims
to achieve.

To do that, scientists must observe no less than 3170 pointings for 8 hours each. When they
achieve this impressive feat, the scientists will be able to achieve 5” resolution images with
a sensitivity of 100 µJy/beam and accomplish the main scientific aims of the survey: to
explore the formation and evolution of massive black holes, galaxies, clusters of galaxies
and large-scale structures.

An impossible task? ‘We are now a bit over 50 percent of the observations,’ says ASTRON
astronomer dr. Timothy Shimwell. Quite an achievement already and one that has been
made with a team of about 250 scientists. Shimwell: ‘We’re spread over 20 countries and High-resolution LOFAR
about 60 institutes.’ High Band Antenna
image of the Boötes
Why so many scientists? Because there were quite a few challenges to overcome with field, made at 130-
different expertises. For example: LOFAR uses supercomputers that handle large data rates, 169 MHz. The image
and a large number of specially written algorithms and software. is a result of the
LOFAR Two Metre Sky
Survey. (credit: Wendy
To what does the ‘Two-metre’ refer? ‘To the 150 MHz-band’, Shimwell explains. So basically,
Williams)
to the bandwidth that LOFAR is surveying. And quite effectively, Shimwell adds. ‘One of
LOFAR’s strengths is to map the sky at very low frequencies with very high resolution and
sensitivity, within a reasonable amount of time.’

The project started in 2014 and has thus far produced over a hundred scientific papers.
And even though the LOFAR Two-metre Sky Survey had passed the halfway mark, it is
unknown when it will be finished. Shimwell: ‘Just like everyone else we have to send in
proposals to get some time allocated to do our surveys. We generally put in a big proposal
and on average get allocated around a thousand hours per six months.’ To put things into
perspective: the whole survey will take about 14,000 hours of observations.

Particularly important about the survey is the openness, explains Shimwell: ‘We are trying
to ensure that the data we collect become public in the best possible quality. That way, the
whole international scientific community can benefit from it.’
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Improved upper limits on the 21 cm signal power spectrum of

neutral hydrogen at z ≈ 9.1 from LOFAR
13.8 billion years ago, our Universe was created in an event called the Big Bang. In this highlight, researchers have shown that they have made a significant step forward.
“Only” 0.5 billion years later, the Universe entered a pivotal stage. At that time, the By analyzing 141 hours of observing, they have have been able to rule out, for the first
Universe was filled with cold hydrogen, and the first objects, such as early stars time, that the inprint exceeds a certain brightness. They will continue using LOFAR to try
and galaxies, had just formed. These objects started to heat the hydrogen, causing and find direct proof of this mysterious era in the evolution of our Universe.
“bubbles” of heated hydrogen to form around the radiating sources. This process is
called the Epoch of Reionization. The article this highlight is based on Improved upper limits on the 21-cm signal power
spectrum of neutral hydrogen at z≈9.1 from LOFAR F. G. Mertens, M. Mevius, L.V.E
A group of researchers is using LOFAR to improve our understanding of this early phase Koopmans, A. R. Offringa and others.
of our Universe. The bubbles of heated hydrogen leave a particular inprint behind in doi: 10.1093/mnras/staa327
the signals that LOFAR receives, and can therefore be detected by LOFAR. However, this
requires advanced modelling techniques and combining many observations to detect
the weak inprint behind all the nearby bright objects.

Schematic representation of the evolution of our universe. (credit: NAOJ)

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10 years of LOFAR highlights

LOFAR pioneers new way to study exoplanet environments

With the help of LOFAR, astronomers have been able to

indicate the presence of a planet around a red dwarf star
and with that, prove a theory that was composed with
observations of Jupiter and its moon Io.

Red dwarfs have a very strong magnetic field. Due to their

relatively small size, a potentially habitable planet needs
to be close to the Red Dwarf. Therefore, this planet is
exposed to intense magnetic activity, which results in radio
emissions. Due to its high sensitivity, LOFAR is able to detect
these radio waves.
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A large light-mass component of cosmic rays at

1017-1017.5 eV from radio observations
LOFAR is a highly flexible instrument, which can be utilized for many things. Each
antenna, for example, has a 5-second buffer, which can be used to measure very
short, strong signals. With this attribute from LOFAR, scientists study cosmic
radiation, elementary parts, such as protons and iron cores with high amounts of
energy, which are approaching earth.

One such particle has so much energy that with E = mc2 many other particles are formed.
This is what we call a particle shower. In the earth’s magnetic field these particles
produce radio waves that can be detected with LOFAR over a surface with a radius of
several hundred metres.

The LOFAR Radboud air shower array measures these particles and sends a signal to
LOFAR to read out the radio data. Therefore, LOFAR measures these radio waves at
different locations. By comparing simulations of the particle shower with the actual
measurements the energy and type of particle can be determined. This article describes
which parts, containing which amounts of energy are reaching earth and measures that
80% of the particles at 0.3 EeV are a mixture of light parts, such as hydrogen, helium
and carbon. The explanation for this, given here is that such a thing as galactic super
accelerators exist, for example Wolf-Rayet stars, 500,000 times stronger than the Large
Hadron Collider at CERN.

Article referenced: A large light-mass component of cosmic rays at 1017-1017.5

electronvolts from radio observations
doi: 10.1038/nature16976

The figure above shows a simulation using LOFAR data. The colour represents the clarity
of the radio signal. In the circles the colour indicates the antenna signal, which matches
the simulation nicely.
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The use of a monitor & control system that monitors

a physically widely distributed instrument
The day-to-day LOFAR operations require highly specialized monitoring and Because all the elements can be viewed and the reason why they failed is in the
control systems. We use a system that easily enables us to visualize any values database, it also gives us the option to make reports and set priorities for the
we put in our database in a graphic interface or time-sequenced graphs. ASTRON maintenance cycle. The number of failed elements in HBA/LBA can be viewed and from
uses a Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system called Simatic there we can start making a priority list for the field engineers. We do this roughly four
WinCC Open Architecture (WinCC OA). We can fill the database of this system in times per year. All the stations in the Dutch network get a maintenance visit every round,
many ways: from custom-built interfaces to SNMP (Simple Network Management making sure we get the most out of LOFAR.
Protocol) input channels.

Organisations in many countries use WinCC OA for large scale projects like the
monitoring and controlling of gas/energy distribution or waterways. Even the Large
Hadron Collider in CERN is controlled in this way. Because it is specialised in handling
millions of data points on many distributed systems, WinCC OA is a perfect fit for us.

In the LOFAR control-room, you will always see the main panel opened. The operator
can easily see all the stations in the LOFAR network with a birds-eye view, see how
they are performing, and get alerts if action needs to be taken. We can set these alert
thresholds (low / suspicious / high) when the need arises, to make sure elements that
start having problems can be discovered even before they fail completely.

All kinds of events can be displayed like when a fan stops working, a power supply drops
out, cabinet/board temperatures rise too high, or when there is a network hick-up or
power cut. It also gives us the ability to turn off antennas remotely and put a note in the
system when and why it was turned off, so we can send an engineer to the station to do
a repair. This way we are always sure that the observation that is running only includes
stations that are working perfectly and the faulty elements are not included in the data.
Control-room video wall in Dwingeloo showing “the Navigator”, our Monitoring &
And when there is a large scale problem, we can stop the observation from the user Control system
interface. We do this to make sure no time is lost and we can restart observing later
when the system is back in optimum condition.
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10 years of Lofar highLights

The use of a monitor & control system that monitors

a physically widely distributed instrument

There are all kinds of

different processes /
software / firmware
and daemons that we
The main panel shows the whole system
monitor during running
in color-coded boxes. Hovering over
observations in the
them gives us more information when
monitoring system
we need it, clicking on them takes us HBA faulty elements above / LBA
deeper into the system. As alarms elements below (green = on in this
cascade through the system, even the specific observation, gray = off,
smallest event deep in the system will red = faulty). This view also shows
be viewable on the top level. Here you us the lay-out and position of the
see two stations in software level 2 for station elements so we can guide
maintenance. And the German stations the people in the field.
do not have a network connection right
now as they have been switched to local
mode.
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The use of a monitor & control system that monitors

a physically widely distributed instrument

Turning off elements and leaving a

note for the field engineers we usually
go with short codes like: OSCILLATION
(OSC) / FLAT (FLAT) / HIGH NOISE (HN)
/ SHORT (SHORT) / DOWN (DOWN) /
Cabinet view: you can SUMMATOR NOISE (SN) / LOW NOISE
go as deep as you want (LN). And afterwards we leave a note
into it. From LOFAR -> when and what was done to repair it.
Station -> Cabinet -> Rack So if it happens again we know what
-> Subrack -> Board -> repair was already done.
Element -> Software /
Firmware / etc
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A LOFAR View of the Turbulent Ionosphere

The view of the radio universe at the VHF frequencies of LOFAR is strongly affected When analysed over a wide band, these shifts can form an arc structure which gives
by the Earth’s ionosphere. This dynamic region, which exists from about 60km information on the altitude of the scattering region and how fast it’s moving.
altitude upwards, is where the neutral particles making up the lower atmosphere
become ionised leading to radio waves from the rest of the cosmos being refracted
and scattered as they pass through it.

The effect for astronomers is that the images they are trying to take of distant radio
sources can be heavily distorted, appearing to shift and shimmer and vary in their
strength. It is exactly the same effect as us looking up at the stars in the night sky and
seeing them twinkle in visible light due to the effects of the lower atmosphere, or trying
to view a pebble at the bottom of a pool of disturbed water. However, in science, one
person’s noise is another’s data: The ionospheric effects that most astronomers are
trying to remove can also be used to gain information on the structure and dynamics of
the ionosphere itself, and one team of researchers is doing exactly that.

The ionosphere is known to be highly active at polar latitudes, where spectacular

displays of aurora can be seen, and at equatorial latitudes, but is much quieter at the
mid-latitudes, which is one of the main reasons that LOFAR was built where it is. The
effect of the ionosphere can be seen clearly in a movie showing how the intensity of
a strong radio source, received by all LOFAR stations simultaneously, changes over
the dense core of stations at LOFAR’s centre. Peaks and dips in the received intensity
are shown in red and blue respectively, with the locations of the stations themselves
marked as solid circles. The intensity pattern varies significantly with bands of intensity
moving generally north-west to south-east over the core stations, but some patterns
appearing to move in a different direction. This observation showed two arc structures, indicating that the scattering causing such
variations in the received intensity was caused by two different layers in the ionosphere,
One of the main advantages of using LOFAR for studies such as these is its wide one with material at an altitude of several hundred kilometres, flowing north-west to
bandwidth. How much a radio wave is scattered depends, amongst other things, south-east at a relatively slow speed, and the other with material very low down in the
on its wavelength, with longer wavelengths (and so lower frequencies) generally ionosphere, moving north-east to south-west at a much higher speed.
scattered more than shorter wavelengths. This means that the intensity received at
one wavelength will appear shifted in both time and frequency compared to another.
 21
10 years of Lofar highLights

A LOFAR View of the Turbulent Ionosphere

We think that this is the result of two, simultaneous disturbances in the ionosphere: One
most likely comes from activity at high latitudes propagating southwards to affect the
ionosphere above LOFAR, and the other is likely to be the result of activity lower down
in the atmosphere bubbling up. It is, we think, the first time that these two effects have
been directly observed simultaneously.
 22
10 years of LOFAR highlights

Pulsar shows sudden mood swings

In 2013 an international research team – led by Dutch astronomers (SRON, NOVA pulses, the X-rays are weak. But when the radio emission switches to weak, the X-rays
and ASTRON) – discovers that pulsar PSR B0943+10 can both radically change the synchronously intensify. ‘To our surprise we found that when the brightness of the radio
amounts of radio waves and X-ray waves it emits within seconds. Never before have emission decreased to half the original brightness, the X-ray emission brightened by a
scientists been able to determine whether a change in the amounts of emitted radio factor of two!’ says project leader Wim Hermsen (SRON Netherlands Institute for Space
waves, a common phenomenon with pulsars, also influences the amount of X-ray Research/UvA). And only then the X-ray emission is pulsed. Lucien Kuiper (SRON), who
waves that some pulsars emit. scrutinised the data from XMM-Newton, concluded that this strongly suggests that a
temporary ‘hotspot’ close to the pulsar’s magnetic pole switches on and off with the
Thanks to LOFAR’s sensitivity, a team of scientists is able to closely monitor the amount change of state.
of radio waves PSR B0943+10 emits. At the same time X-ray space telescope XMM-
Newton measures the amount of X-rays the pulsar emits. Most striking is that this ‘mood swing’ takes place within seconds, after which the pulsar
remains stable in its new state for a few hours. The researchers publish their results in
The scientists find that when PSR B0943+10 emits strong radio signals and clear the scientific journal Science.

Pulsar 1 Pulsar 2 Pulsar 1

A pulsar with glowing cones of radiation stemming
from its magnetic poles – a state referred to as
‘radio-bright’ mode. (credit: ESA/ATG medialab)

Pulsar 2
A pulsar with glowing ‘hot-spots’ that are located at
its magnetic poles, the likely sites of X-ray emission
from old pulsars. In particular, the illustration
shows the pulsar in a state characterised by
bright X-ray emission, arising from the polar
caps, and relatively low radio emission from the
cones that stem from the pulsar’s magnetic poles
(‘X-ray-bright/radio-quiet’ mode). (credit: ESA/ATG
medialab)
 23
10 years of Lofar highLights

Gentle reenergization of electrons in merging galaxy clusters

Supermassive black holes can leave a trail of energetic

particles that astronomers are able to detect using radio
telescopes. Usually the radio emissions from these
particles fade away and become invisible. However, in
the merging galaxy cluster Abell 1033, the Low Frequency
Array discovered that some of these particles can be
rejuvenated and start shining again when observed at
very low radio frequencies.

A composite (false-colour) image of the galaxy cluster

Abell 1033. Optical light from individual galaxies, visible as
coloured spots across the image, is obtained by the Sloan
Digital Sky Survey, while in blue the X-ray emission observed
with the Chandra satellite traces the hot gas. Radio emission
from LOFAR and the VLA is shown in orange and traces a
complex of radio sources including a tail of particles left
behind by the galaxy moving towards the left of the image.
 24
10 years of LOFAR highlights

The use of GPS receivers and rubidium modules to sync the stations

One of the important aspects of radio telescopes, in general, is the synchronisation

in between antennas and for LOFAR in particular the synchronization between
stations. Normally a clock is distributed from a central location to antennas.
However, the stations are far apart and the distribution of a clock signal over
distances of 100’s and even 1000’s of kilometers is not trivial. Therefore, it was
decided not to distribute the clock but generate the clock locally near each station.

For this a three-staged approach was taken to ensure stability on:

1. the long-term by the usage of GPS signals,
2. the mid-term by a Rubidium module and
3. the short-term by applying a crystal.

Soon, it turned out that the differential clock drifts between stations required an
additional real-time calibration for the Tied-Array mode, which could be prevented by
a central clock distribution. Since in the early days the Tied-Array mode used primarily
the superterp stations, a central clock distribution was implemented for the superterp
stations. The clock source was installed in the concentrator node and from there on the
clock signals were distributed via a fiber link to the six superterp stations in the year
2010. Due to the great success of this, the central clock solution was extended to all Synchoptics board. (Credit: ASTRON)
24 core stations in 2012. Currently, the optical clock distribution system results in
a timing accuracy between the core stations within one nanosecond, which equals
0.000000001 seconds. In LOFAR2.0 also the remote stations will be synchronized via
the same central clock source in the concentrator node which is located in the heart
of LOFAR. In the future the ambition is, to include also the international stations in the
central clock distribution such that at the end all stations are synchronized via the same
central clock source.
 25
10 years of LOFAR highlights

The TBB boards that act as a time machine

The LOFAR Transient Buffer Board (TBB) gave the LOFAR radio telescope a unique
extra capability: looking back in time.

For this the TBB had the latest DDR2 (Double Data Rate) memory technology onboard,
at the time of installation. This was in particular required for cosmic ray and lightning
studies. After a cosmic ray event trigger the data in the memory was stopped and
consequently downloaded for further study of the raw antenna data. The system was
able to look 5 seconds back in time for the full bandwidth. The time to look back could
be increased by sacrificing bandwidth for that. A unique capability at that time!

TBB board. (Credit: ASTRON)

 26

WHAT WE LOOK
FORWARD TO
IN LOFAR 2.0
 27
What We Look forWard to in Lofar 2.0:

Searching for extreme pulsars

During the 10 years since the LOFAR opening, the

telescope has proven itself as an excellent instrument for
the study of radio pulsars, rotating neutron stars whose
radio beams act as lighthouses. LOFAR has discovered
over 80 new pulsars, from the slowest spinning pulsar,
rotating once every 23.5 seconds, to one of the fastest,
rotating 707 times each second.

Thanks to the exquicite depth of the LOFAR imaging survey,

searching for new and more extreme pulsars will enter a
new era, where instead of blindly searching for periodic
signals, pulsar candidates can be identified from point
sources with (ultra-) steep radio spectra and/or high degrees
of linear or circular polarization. These new pulsars, as well
as previously known pulsars will allow radio astronomers to
map the electron density and the topology of the Galactic
magnetic field, use the Solar wind for space weather
forecasts, study the emission properties of pulsars and
probe the physics of ultra-dense matter.

LOFAR discovered the slowest spinning pulsar, rotating once every 23.5 seconds. The black line shows the average
radio pulse, where the pulsar is only visible for a fraction of each rotation. The rotation is slow enough that the pulsed
emission can be seen in LOFAR images. (Credit: ASTRON)
 28
What We Look forWard to in Lofar 2.0:

Simultaneous LBA and HBA observing

LOFAR uses two types of antennas. Each type listens to
different wavelengths of the radio spectrum. Different
wavelengths provide complementary information about
the Universe and its constituents.

Currently, LOFAR can use only one type of antenna at

the same time. In 2022 the digital brains of LOFAR are
upgraded to simultaneously observe with both types of
antennas. New pioneering astrophysical research will
be possible using the absolute lowest radio frequencies
visible from Earth. With this new system, the northern sky
can be surveyed > 100x more sensitive and at > 5x higher-
resolution compared to any previous or planned survey at
these exceptionally long wavelengths.

Low Band Antenna

 29
What We Look forWard to in Lofar 2.0:

Simultaneous LBA and HBA observing

High Band Antenna

 30
What we look forward to in LOFAR 2.0

A brain transplant for LOFAR

If the antennae of LOFAR are the senses of the radio telescope, then the central Pandey. These are the data that researchers use in their studies. The central correlator
correlator is its brain. It is the place where all the data streams come together and COBALT2.0 is capable to simultaneously receive and process the data streams from both
are converted into astronomy data. LOFAR’s current brain is called COBALT 2.0 48 high-band antennae fields and 96 low-band antennae fields. Those combined data
(Correlator and Beamforming Application platform for the LOFAR Telescope). streams are 148 Gb/s and 296 Gb/s respectively, which roughly translates to equivalent
data rate of a million single sided single layer Digital Video Discs (DVD-5) per day.
The correlator team at ASTRON has delivered a remarkable piece of technology with
COBALT 2.0. It is the successor to the previous COBALT correlator, which reached its end
of life early 2019 as the warranty was going to expire. ‘The replacement was planned
well in advance in the form of a LOFAR Mega Mode (LMM) proposal, led by Jason Hessels
at ASTRON and University of Amsterdam,’ says Vishambhar Nath Pandey, system
researcher at ASTRON. The main idea of the LMM proposal was to turn LOFAR into a
truly multitasking radio telescope thus significantly boosting the science returns per
observing hour, without changing the hardware on the ground. It received an NWO-M
grant in 2017 where NWO (Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek)
and ASTRON funded the project together.

The works on this new brain commenced in 2018, starting with the detailed design
and procurement phase through an open EU wide tender. Pandey: ‘COBALT 2.0 is
state of the art and future proof in terms of its design and flexibility. It is also amongst
the most energy efficient High Performance and High Throughput Computing (HPC/
HTC) correlators possible with the current technology.’ The hardware for COBALT 2.0
arrived early 2019. Pandey: ‘After successful validation tests for hardware compliance
in February 2019, the existing COBALT software was installed, and optimized where
necessary, which was made easier due to hardware software codesign of the correlator.’
In the summer of 2019, after it had passed all tests successfully, COBALT 2.0 was officially
put into regular use. ‘Thus far it has been a great success.’

Mega Mode
‘LOFAR’s antennae fields, spread across Europe, each generate about 3.1 Gb/s in data The idea for LOFAR Mega Mode. (Credit: V.N. Pandey/ASTRON)
streams. Those arrive at the central correlator, which appropriately processes and
combines all the data streams into a readily usable data form for astronomers’, says
 31
What we look forward to in LOFAR 2.0

A brain transplant for LOFAR

Usually a correlator can only process the data of a single project at a time. COBALT these processors were originally developed for graphic cards – is extremely skilled in
2.0 however, can simultaneously process the data of several projects simultaneously. performing one specific type of programmable calculation. COBALT 2.0 optimally utilizes
Pandey: ‘We call that the LOFAR Mega Mode.’ The concept is as follows: for a certain the CPUs and GPUs for tasks where they are most efficient at.
research project LOFAR looks at a specific part of the sky, from which data streams are
collected. ‘It may well be possible that this part of the sky encompasses the area which
is subject of the project of another researcher,’ Pandey says. ‘That means that the data
streams can be used for that second research project as well. You have to appropriately
combine the data streams for that second research project, but that is something
COBALT 2.0 is capable of due to its immense computing and throughput power.’

Another thing that COBALT 2.0 can do, is to produce both imaging data and beam
formed data from the same data streams. Imaging data are used to produce high angular
resolution images of a certain part of the sky; beam formed data can be used for high
time and frequency resolution applications, like discovery and high cadence monitoring
of exotic pulsars, solar and planetary studies, for example. In a very simplified way to
produce imaging data, the data streams are appropriately multiplied; by appropriately
adding the data streams the correlator can produce beam formed data. And COBALT 2.0
can produce both simultaneously.

Presently the team is busy implementing the new features in LOFAR Mega Mode to
the existing COBALT software in order to realize the full potential of COBALT 2.0. Once
completed, the resulting increased efficiency and capabilities of LOFAR will lead to new
discoveries to help understand and unravel more scientific mysteries of the universe in
the years to come.

Extremely energy efficient

COBALT 2.0. (Credit: ASTRON)
The COBALT 2.0 system has an optimal combination of the most appropriate set of
components, CPUs, GPUs, network topologies and most energy efficient power supplies.
A CPU, a central processing unit, is skilled in performing lots of different calculations
simultaneously; a GPU, a graphic processing unit – the name stems from the fact that
 32
What We Look forWard to in Lofar 2.0

A brain transplant for LOFAR

The new correlator is amongst the most energy efficient ones. Given the fact that the SPECIFICATIONS OF COBALT AND COBALT 2.0
apparatus will be running 24/7, 365 days a year, that is an important feat. Pandey:
‘Despite COBALT 2.0 being several times faster than its predecessors and its LOFAR Mega
Mode capability to process several projects simultaneously, its energy budget even at
peak load is well within around € 1.000 a month.’

ALREADY A BIG SUCCESS

COBALT 2.0 isn’t only a future highlight for LOFAR, but it can already be called a success:
Scientists and Engineers of the French NenuFAR telescope chose the COBALT 2.0 design
after comparisons with other possible designs for their own correlator named NICKEL
(NenuFAR Imager Correlation Kluster Elaborated from LOFAR’s). Pandey: ‘Our shared
work and knowledge saves them years of work, also because they are reusing the
correlator software suite developed by ASTRON for LOFAR. They are actually a few years
ahead due to this. So, this is an example implementation of ASTRON’s philosophy of This was a coordinated effort of the correlator team, comprising of: V.N. Pandey,
open source technical collaboration.’ J. J. D. Mol, P. C. Broekema, J. Romein, C. Bassa, J. Hessels, R. Kaptijn, J. Klipic, R.
Bokhorst, J. Schaap, K. Stuurwold, P. Boven, B. Veenboer, Y. Grange, A. Coolen along
In addition, the availability of Tensor Cores in Volta V100 GPUs in COBALT 2.0, which with the collaboration with the Center for Information Technology (CIT) at the University
can further speed up performance for half precision (than presently used full precision) of Groningen.
computations by about a factor of 5, opens up the exciting future possibility of exploring
future new astronomical observing modes which can be carried out with lower
precision.

COBALT 2.0 will play a pivotal role in defining the future scientific capabilities of LOFAR.
The success of this project is possible due to the pioneering modern digital design of
the LOFAR telescope, and learnings from involvement in adapting state of the art new
technologies during the GPU based COBALT (2013) and the earlier CPU based IBM Blue
Gene -L/P (2004/2008) correlators.
 33
What We Look forWard to in Lofar 2.0

Detecting SMBH particles

Supermassive black holes can leave a trail of energetic
particles that astronomers are able to detect using radio
telescopes.

Usually the radio emission from these particles fades away

and become invisible as it ages. However, in the merging
galaxy cluster Abell 1033, LOFAR discovered that some
of these particles can be rejuvenated and start shining
again when observed at very low radio frequencies. This
reenergising process can occur because when cluster merge
a huge amount of energy is dissipated — these merging
events are the most energetic processes since the Big Bang.

With the help of LOFAR, astronomers want to study these

particles, to learn about how galaxy clusters evolve in the
Universe and how their evolution is influenced by magnetic
fields and accretion.
 34
What We Look forWard to in Lofar 2.0

High-precision clock to all Dutch stations

In the LOFAR radio telescope, the observation data

is synchronized over time for accurate processing of
the received signals. Until now, the telescope uses
GPS techniques to synchronize the observation data,
achieving an accuracy between 1 ns and 10 ns.

To further expand the scientific possibilities of LOFAR,

the accuracy of its time synchronization system will be
improved in the coming time. Instead of using GPS, the
Dutch part of LOFAR will be equipped with a new timing
system that uses synchronous optical clock distribution via
LOFAR’s fiber-optic network. This clock system upgrade will
be accomplished using state-of-the-art clock distribution
technology capable of achieving timing accuracies of better
than 100 ps.
 35
What we look forward to in LOFAR 2.0

A new specification and scheduling system

In 2021, ASTRON will deliver TMSS (Telescope Manager

Specification System), which is a brand-new platform
for the specification, administration, and scheduling of
LOFAR observations.

TMSS is revolutionary in many aspects. It delivers a dynamic

scheduling system and other specification and data flow
improvements which enhance the efficiency and automation
of LOFAR operations. By also improving the adaptability
and maintainability of the software for future extensions,
it prepares LOFAR in the best possible way for its next
challenges. These involve evolving towards LOFAR 2.0 and
performing the next low frequency surveys, which will open
up an important discovery space for the user community.

TMSS has seen its first light in April 2020, when it

successfully performed a survey observation. This was an
important milestone for the project and a first of several
more expected in the next months.
 36
What we look forward to in LOFAR 2.0

LOFAR expands to Italy

In 2018, Italy officially joined the International LOFAR Telescope

(ILT) and in the near future the LOFAR station in Italy will become
operational. The station in Italy will be equipped with newly
developed hardware of the 2.0 generation. The station is to be
installed at the Medicina Radio Observatory site near Bologna.
This Italian LOFAR station will be operated under supervisory of
the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF).

Italy is an important partner for the ILT, but also for the Netherlands.
Both countries have a distinguished track record in radio astronomy
and this partnership reinforces the long-standing bonds of exchange
and collaboration on radio astronomy in Europe, which already
dates from the earliest times of the Westerbork telescope. With a
LOFAR station in Italy there will be a significant wider distributed
antenna network across Europe, this will benefit the image quality
for all astronomers and other scientific users.

Besides LOFAR operations in the future, INAF participates in the

ASTRON-led drive to develop next generation state-of-the-art LOFAR
electronics. INAF also is involved in software development and
algorithms for data processing.

Pathfinder for SKA

LOFAR is a pathfinder for the next-generation Square Kilometre

Array (SKA) telescope. The Netherlands and Italy will also partner up
for the SKA telescope in which both countries are deeply involved.
LOFAR won’t stop operating once the SKA is built, it will continue to
do top-level scientific observations. LOFAR gives us the opportunity
to train new generations of scientists in the use of SKA.
 37
What we look forward to in LOFAR 2.0

Cranking up LOFAR’s robustness

In order to receive radio signals from across the Universe, LOFAR needs to be very already filter out much of this ‘horizon interference’, but due to cost reductions, the wire
sensitive. The downside of that sensitivity is susceptibility to radio interference: mesh does not cover the entire area covered by the station. If we cover the ground below
other sources that produce radio signals that LOFAR detects, but does not want the antenna field entirely with wire mesh, horizon interference will be even further
to measure. ASTRON staff members are working out technologies to make LOFAR suppressed. We are already implementing this with SKA, the Square Kilometre Array.”
more robust against interference.

A big source of interference are wind turbines. Wind farms around LOFAR produce
radio waves that are detected by LOFAR. By knowing the source and frequency of this
interference, they can be filtered out of the data, but that creates a blind spot.

“In 2016, we, together with the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the wind farm builders,
drew up a covenant,’ says ASTRON’s senior researcher Stefan Wijnholds. ‘Part of that
covenant is that we will be allowed to ask the wind farm owners to turn off their turbines
at the moment that we want to make our most sensitive observations. As compensation
we will make our telescope more robust against the radio interference of wind turbines.
For this, we have received government funding.”

Wijnholds: “We have selected the most promising techniques, which are now being
worked out further. The most promising method is a technique called ‘spatial filtering.’” An example of nulling. Radio interference (left) can be removed by nulling (right).
LOFAR looks into the sky in a single direction. All radio signals that LOFAR receives from (Credit: Albert-Jan Boonstra, from Radio Frequency Interference Mitigation in Radio
Astronomy, 2005)
that particular direction are added together, so that these signals strengthen each other.
“You can do the exact opposite for signals that you do not want to observe,” Wijnholds
says. “You can make these signals counteract one another, nulling them out completely.
In 2004 we successfully demonstrated this technique with a LOFAR prototype station.”

Another measure that could be taken is expanding the wire meshes under the Low Band
Antennas (LBA). Wijnholds: “Each LBA is built on a grid of 3-by-3 metres of wire mesh.
Without that, the antennas would be sensitive for radio signals from the horizon, which
are signals you do not want to measure.” The wind turbines are positioned at such a
distance that from the antenna stations of LOFAR, they appear to be close to the horizon,
Wijnholds explains. “The wire meshes that are currently placed under the antennas,
 38
What we look forward to in LOFAR 2.0

Habitability of alien worlds

The Earth receives its life-sustaining energy from

Sunlight, but “explosions” on the Sun can also be life-
threatening. Explosions on the Sun’s surface, called
flares, can spew out large masses of plasma and harmful
radiation towards the planets. Radio telescopes have
been instrumental in detecting and studying the physics
of solar flares. With an exquisitely sensitive telescope
like LOFAR, we can now look for similar radio signatures
on other stars to decipher how conducive to life their
exoplanets are.

This quest reached its first milestone recently with the

detection of radio-waves from the star GJ1151 pictured
below. The waves carry the predicted signature of a plasma
bridge (bluish ribbon in picture) between the star and its
planet.

This is the beginning of an exciting path for LOFAR 2.0. The

search for exoplanets is one of the specific science cases that
LOFAR 2.0 will be engaged in.

The plasma bridge is just one way stars influence exoplanets.

We expect to detect emission from several phenomena
affecting the “space-weather” around exoplanets. With
upcoming observations, we also aim to detect the magnetic
fields of exoplanets which are their defence mechanism
against stellar flares.

(Credit: Danielle Futselaar)

 39
What we look forward to in LOFAR 2.0

Habitability of alien worlds

A solar flare. (Credit: L. Fletcher)

 40
What We Look forWard to in Lofar 2.0

Live warning system to study solar eruptions

The Sun’s activity appears not only in the well-known 11-year Sunspot cycle, but warns LOFAR that a solar eruption is taking place, so that LOFAR immediately can start
also in short duration eruptions as flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs). Such measuring solar radio waves. Brentjens: “We no longer will have to stare at the Sun for
eruptive events, also known as space weather, can harmfully influence our Earth’s weeks up to months without something happening; now we can immediately respond
environment and technologies, such as GPS navigation, satellite communications to a live warning from DISTURB; much more efficient!”
and electric power grids. These events are accompanied with an enhanced radio
emission of the Sun, especially in the frequency range (30-240 MHz) covered by
LOFAR.

Hence, LOFAR is of great interest for solar physicists, since LOFAR with its spectroscopic
and imaging capabilities is well suited for studying active processes in the Sun’s corona.
This is the reason why the Key Science Project “Solar Physics and Space Weather with
LOFAR” was founded. During LOFAR’s commissioning phase and the first cycles of
regular observations, the solar KSP performed observations of the Sun, together with
ASTRON.

DISTURB

On 30 January 2019, ASTRON, together with S[&]T started the design of a solar radio
telescope to directly detect eruptions on the sun, at the request of the Ministry of
Defence; the Royal Netherland Meteorological Institute (KNMI) is also involved. The
project is called DISTURB (Disturbance detection by Intelligent Solar Radio Telescope or
(Un)perturbed Radiofrequency Bands). “We finished the initial development phase on
June 15th,’ says ASTRON senior scientist Michiel Brentjens. “Currently we are looking for
funding, so that in the next three to five year we can build a fully functional prototype.”
That prototype will then be able to directly detect eruptions on the Sun. Eventually the
solar telescope might be scaled up to seven to twelve stations worldwide, providing
global coverage.
An impression of what the solar radio telescope will look like. (Credit: ASTRON)
Brentjens points out that DISTURB is not so much an expansion of LOFAR as it is
reusage of its technology. However, the development of this solar radio telescope will
enable LOFAR 2.0 to study space weather more quickly and more accurately. DISTURB