LOFAR Internationalisation & E-LOFAR an overvie fileLOFAR Internationalisation & E-LOFAR an overview...

LOFAR Internationalisation& E-LOFARan overview

- Report on 2 internationalisation meetings held- Organise for maximal overall science output by streamlining

- Institutional bodies/panels: involved in operations- Interfaces to users: they organise their projects

- E-LOFAR

René VermeulenDirector Radio Observatory at ASTRON

2008-09-17 RCV 2Hamburg

LOFAR: Astrophysics Symposium Sep 2008

• More than 140 participants here from all over Europe• Very broad span of astrophysical topics:

– Transient sources– Pulsars– Planets, exoplanets and SETI– The Sun (and space weather)– Cosmic rays– The Epoch-of-Reionisation– Cosmic magnetism– Galactic structure and ISM– (wide area) Imaging surveys– Clusters and halos– Radio galaxies and AGN– YOUR TOPIC HERE


LOFAR in EuropeLOFAR in Europe

• LOFAR has become a multi-national telescope:– Funded stations, on the ground by end 2009

• 1 France• 5 Germany• 36+ Netherlands• 1 Sweden• 1 UK

– Additional stations proposed or under consideration:• 1 France (“Superstation”)• 1 Ireland• 1 Italy• 3 Poland• 1 Ukraine (w. Austrian partners)• 3 UK


LOFAR: a broad common-user observatory

• LOFAR scope has gone from “Project” to “Observatory”

• An Observatory is run by an institute, or a consortium of institutes• An Observatory has many Users Groups

• A User Group aims at maximal realisation of particular science goals• An Observatory aims at maximal, long-term overall scientific output


• Radio Observatory at ASTRON has beenrestructured and is expanding– Integrated LOFAR/WSRT Control Room in Dwingeloo– New Science Support Centre (dedicated staff; visitor room)– Dedicated Technical Operations staff– Additional System Engineers

Half-a-dozen Job Opportunities now open for you(come see me):

Support Astronomer; or Head of GroupSoftware, hardware Engineer; or Systems expert; or Head of Group

LOFAR: a broad common-user observatory


Meetings on LOFAR Internationalisation

• LOFAR will be run as a multi-national telescope

• Workshop May 27+28 in Dwingeloowith the international “institutional” partners– Getting to know each other

• Each of the “parties” is constituted differently• Aims and means are different

– Station price, transportation, installation– Recognition in observing time for contributions to operations

• 3-tiered scheme: balance Open Skies, Development, Operations

– Operational issues



• Follow-up meeting held here last evening

– National updates (listen to the talks that follow)

– Allowing for further station purchases (after 44 now funded):• Timing of funding is an issue, may affect prices• Will attempt to optimise, develop collective scenario



– Sharpened our understanding about the separate roles ofinstitutional partners and of users

• Must clarify the inter-relationships within our (inter)national groups• Must set up appropriate bodies for each to interact with the other

– Highlighted the need to• form multi-national institutional consortium for operational phase

• revise functions of some of the panels/bodies now in existence



– Set up a standing working group to hammer out / propose:• Bodies & panels and their inter-relationships needed

• Set of “working rules” or “constitution” for the desired internationalconsortium to exploit LOFAR

To consult with all interested parties, ensure support base

To arrive at decision-making stage for formal setup of aninternational consortium in several months time



– Recognised• Important contributions made in particular by specific “Key

Science” user groups in good faith• Continued partnerships with user groups essential for

commissioning• Such contributions need to be appropriately rewarded• The evident breadth of science must also be stimulated

• “jump-start call for proposals” will allow an orderly process


Call for proposals

• Call issued by end of 2008, proposals due early 2009

• Programme Committee will assure consolidation ofscience spin-off from the LOFAR commissioningperiod in 2009:– Recognising distinct/multiple uses of datasets:

• projects on the same data can be done by separate groups– Offering viable(initially modest) Open Skies opportunities

• Either making novel use of ongoing commissioning observing• Or modest stand-alone projects (tests, preparations)

– Appropriately preparing for well-focused future projects


Call for proposals

• Scoping out parameter space for 2010+– Allocations only for 2009 commissioning period– But proposals must be framed in context of preparations for

full-blown science projects– PC will provide scientific assessments, give feedback on

longer term plans:• Oversubscriptions• Appropriateness, scope, focus

– Overlaps– Timeline, processing & analysis resources required– Growing Open Skies share to be defined

– All groups can then tune and focus their projects withoutlosing any opportunities

– Actual “full-scale science” proposals will be due later


Collaborations and interactions

• Overall science output from the LOFAR Observatory willbenefit from:– breadth of the user community– healthy competition– Focused research carried out by dedicated research groups

• YOU:– Should set up your project scope and collaborations in the way

you think best suits your science interests, your style of work, andthe finite amount of your time and of telescope time

• Within a large conglomerate or with a small group or on your own• A grand-design programme or a very focused project• Requesting observing time or data access rights

• The PC– Will independently assess the scientific merits of all proposals


Collaborations and interactions

• With always a specific proposal in hand, access to observing time and data can be had

– Via Open Skies– By association with a long-standing “KSP” User Group, willing to

spend some of their finite accrued rights on your specific project– Under the wings and by agreement of one of the (inter)national

groups investing in and operating LOFAR and having rights

• There is so much great science to be done, let’s makesure we get enough dedicated people to focus properly onall those topics !!

... and to help with commissioning first

... coordinate your efforts in/via the LAD (see Michael Wise)


E-LOFAR; reaping the full harvestE-LOFAR; reaping the full harvest

• The science impact of LOFAR will start in 2009

• But to reap the full harvest, must be able to utilise itsunique aspects to the full:– Phased array, “electronic telescope” concepts

– Data and information processing technology

– Extent across Europe, multi-national character



• As science instrument, must achieve:– Very wide-field, high resolution, high fidelity imaging, for e.g:

• Extragalactic surveys at arcsec resolution• Determining positions of Lorrimer objects

– Extremely high fidelity image cubes and polarisation, e.g.:• Epoch of re-ionisation• Magnetic structures (in galaxies, AGNs, GRBs, SNRs)

– Extended data buffering, processing at higher time andfrequency resolution, for e.g.:

• Transients, RRATS• Cosmic Rays



• As SKA pathfinder, need in-depth experience with:– Calibration

• Electronic, Atmospheric, Interference• Real-time and offline• Local and global• Source subtraction, wide-field imaging algorithms

– Complex networks, remote operations– Very large, distributed data volumes and processing needs– Characterisation of target populations for SKA



• E-LOFAR: a high-impact extension to LOFAR.Ambitions:– Double the number of stations

• fill both short and long baseline gaps to achieve high dynamicrange

– Expand time / frequency resolution and data-storage /processing capacity each by a factor of several

– Forge ahead with R&D in algorithms and techniques tocalibrate and (post)process the data



• Time frame 2011-2014:– Enables unimpeded progress in LOFAR science

– Timely w.r.t. focus on SKA: need pathfinding forlong wavelengths, aperture arrays, data(post)processing

– Planning, fundraising, will be coordinated amongstthe international LOFAR consortium members


LOFAR isLOFAR is an SKA pathfinderan SKA pathfinder

• LOFAR is well positioned as an SKA pathfinder:– Operational in 2010– Longest wavelength range– Aperture array technology

• Wideband antennas, receivers, multi-bit digitisation• Installation and maintenance procedures• Stability and calibration strategies of electronics• Calibration strategies of ionosphere• Handling of radio frequency interference

– Data buffering capabilities, triggered and self-detected transients– Long-distance high throughput dedicated fibre connections– Dedicated supercomputer, cluster & network computing, the Grid– VO compliant archive, pipelined processed images– Multi-national operational collaboration, science support– Astronomical applications charting the way to SKA science goals

LOFAR Internationalisation & E-LOFAR an overvie fileLOFAR Internationalisation & E-LOFAR an overview...

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