LOFAR Technologies and Applications of Wide Area Time

LOFAR Technologies and Applications of Wide Area, Time coherent Sensor Arrays (WATSA) an Integrated Project in FP 6 IST and A&S thematic programmes

Integrated Projects • ‘Integrated’ includes all of: • • • Vertical: Horizontal: Activities: Public-private: Financial: fundamental R&D to applications multi-disciplinary management, including training PPPs including SMEs multiple sources • Critical mass to achieve ambitious goal • Duration: 3 – 5 years • Participants • • management organization expertise centers potential users other stakeholders

WATSA applications • Generic passive (WA)TSA • acoustic, sonar and seismic arrays; • radio, microwave, and optical imaging arrays; and • lightning location and monitoring arrays. • Generic active (WA)TSA • phased array weather radar; and • synthetic aperture radar. • Research platform independent of type of sensor • Signal transport network design and control • Signal processing architecture

WATSA Integrated Project • Combines multinational and FP 6 financing • multinational financing for testbed infrastructure • FP 6 financing for R&D in IST and A&S themes – essential to achieve required critical mass • Ambitious goals • very high capacity network design • very high performance, adaptive signal processor design • reconfigurable WATSA research platform – research on distributed, autonomously adaptive sensor arrays – additional application areas • • • radio astronomy (LOFAR) geophysics: 3 D active and passive seismic imaging advanced active/passive radar atmospheric, climate research astroparticle physics ( ≳ 1018 e. V)

Evolution of wide area telescope arrays Parabolic dishes connected by mail

Evolution of wide area telescope arrays e-MERLIN Parabolic dishes connected by optical fiber

Evolution of wide area telescope arrays 104 all-sky RF sensors spread over 400 km connected by optical fibers Replace mechanical signal processing with fully electronic processing LOFAR

Evolution of wide area telescope arrays Integrated panels

ICT comparisons Technology Computing Storage Data transport (date) (T-OPS) (Peta-Bytes) (G-bits/s) 50 1, 0 0, 3 (custom processor) (custom tapes) (mail) 12 0, 45 40 100 1, 0 (custom processor) (0, 5 T-Byte/day) 40 0, 6 4000 (distributed+cluster) (+distributed) (custom network) European VLBI Network 1995 Distributed Terascale Facility 2001 e-MERLIN 2002 LOFAR 2003 320

LOFAR Radio Telescope 10 – 240 MHz frequency range X Central processor Antenna cluster (Station) High speed data transport

LOFAR: a distributed, on-line facility

Adaptive Beamforming 4 -element subarray pattern 2 -element subarray pattern 1 element pattern 1 -element signals 2 -element signals 4 -element signal • Sensitivity pattern narrows with larger subarray • Deep “nulls” can be aimed as desired

Multibeaming 16 12 8 Synthesized beams Station antenna patterns Element antenna pattern 4 Copies of signals processed separately to give multiple beams

A day in the life of LOFAR

Actual and interested participants - 1 Netherlands ASTRON Institute, Dwingeloo Project management, Technology development, Radio astronomy Research Institute of Mathematics and Computing Science, Groningen Complex software systems, Self-test and self-healing Information and Technology Systems, Delft Technical University Complex adaptive systems Leiden Institute for Advanced Computer Sciences Adaptive processing, Low-power and reconfigurable processors, software radio technologies Center for Mathematics and Information Sciences, Amserdam Algorithms for data compression, visualization, adaptive systems Informatics Institute, Univ. Amsterdam Virtual reality and GRID technologies Jean Monnet Center of Excellence, Groningen European procurement law Cluster of Business Development, Univ. Groningen On-line business models Interuniversity Center for Social Science Theory and Methodologies, Groningen Sociology of on-line communities, On-line enviroment design Dutch Space bv System engineering, simulation, GRID technologies Lucent Technologies Nederland Very high capacity digital network design

Actual and interested participants - 2 KPN Research Operational control of digital networks Ordina UTM Communications Solutions Control and monitoring of complex systems Rohde&Schwarz Nederland Low cost, smart, integrated antenna design Royal Dutch Shell Research Seismic imaging Astronomical Institute 'Anton Pannekoek', Amsterdam Pulsars, Transient radio sources Kapteyn Astronomical Institute, Groningen Cosmology, Education and outreach Sterrewacht Leiden Radio astronomy High Energy Physics Institute, Nijmegen Radio astrophysics, Cosmic particle physics Center for Technical Geosciences, Delft Geophysics, seismic imaging Astronomical Institute Utrecht Pulsars, Education and outreach Sweden IT Kronoberg, Växjö Project coordination, Sweden Swedish Institute of Space Physics (IRF), Uppsala Space/Ionospheric physics, Simulation, Digital radio, radar Uppsala University Solar physics, High-performance database management, Radio antennas, Signals and systems Swedish Institute of Space Physics (IRF), Lund Space weather, Solar magnetism

Actual and interested participants - 3 Lund University Elctromagnetic fields and antennas Växjö University Telecom, antennas, IT, Dynamic software architecture, Modeling Linköping U. /National Supercomputer Centre Simulations, Visualisation Rem. Space Group, Linköping Multi-station design and operation Aerotech. Telub AB, Växjö Computer systems, antennas, microwave electronics, and spacecraft subsystems Ericsson Research, Stockholm/Kista Wireless/radio telecom RTD Red Snake Radio Technologies, AB, Stockholm Information dense antennas, Polarimetric techniques Germany Max-Planck-Institut für Aeronomie, Lindau Radar solar physics, Planetary physics Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie, Bonn Cosmic particles, Radiophysics Max-Planck-Institut für Extraterrestrische Physik, Garching Extraterrestrial physics Max-Planck-Institut für Gravitationsphysik, Potsdam Radio physics of gravitational collapse Astrophysikalisches Institut Potsdam Solar radiophysics, Heliographics International University of Bremen General space/astrophysics University of Bremen Space physics

Actual and interested participants - 4 University of Oldenburg Space physics Forschungzentrum Karlruhe Astroparticle physics Radioastronomisches Institut der Universität Bonn Radio astronomy Ruhr-Universität Bochum Theoretical space and astrophysics Siemens High capacity networks, processor design, adaptive antennas Fraunhofer Institute for Media Communication IMK, Sankt Augustin Control of complex networks, visualization Russia Astro-Space Center, Lebedev Physical Institute, Pushchino Space physics, Radio astronomy, Interplanetary Scintillation Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute, St. Petersburg Radio and radar space physics, Anthropogenic effects Radiophysical Research Institute, Nizhniy Novgorod Ionospheric HF radio interactions, Radar, Solar radio physics State University of Nizhniy Novgorod Space radio physics, Solar physics

Actual and interested participants - 5 Finland Finnish Meteorological Institute Space weather Sodankylä Geophysical Observatory Ionospheric and magnetospheric radar, Aeronomy Norway EISCAT, Tromsö Ionospheric, magnetospheric radar, Ionospheric HF radio interactions University of Oslo Astrophysics, Solar physics Denmark Danish Space Research Institute Space and planetary physics Danish Meteorological Institute Upper and lower atmospheric physics, Radio science, Meteorology Copenhagen University Solar atmosphere, Simulations University of Århus Radio science France Observatoire de Paris-Meudon Solar radio astronomy, Array design LPCE/CNRS, Orléans Space radio and radar research Italy Institute of Radio Astronomy, Bologna Radio astronomy, Technology development Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri, Florence Astronomy, space, solar physics

Actual and interested participants - 6 United Kingdom Austria University of Warwick Solar and astro plasma physics, Simulations University of Leicester Ionosphere, space radiophysics University of Wales, Prifysgol Cymru Aberystwyth Interplanetary scintillations Space Research Institute, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Graz Planetary radio research Greece University of Crete Upper atmospheric radar, Astrophysics and space physics Poland Space Research Centre, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw Space physics, ionospheric radio Switzerland ETH, Zurich Solar radar, Plasma astrophysics