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On May 3, the first meeting of the German LOng Wavelength Consortium
(GLOW) took place at the Astrophysical Institute Potsdam. On this occasion,
the members elected Prof. Anton Zensus, Director of the Max-Planck-Institut für
Radioastronomie in Bonn as chairman and Prof. Marcus Brüggen,
Professor of Astrophysics at the International University Bremen as deputy
chairman.
Members of this consortium are the astronomical institutes of the
universities Bochum, Bonn, Cologne, the Max-Planck-Institut for
Radioastronomy in Bonn, the International University Bremen, the
Max-Planck-Institut for Astrophysics in Garching, the Sternwarte Hamburg,
the Forschungszentrum Jülich, the Astrophysical Institute Potsdam and the
Thüringer Landessternwarte in Tautenburg.
LOFAR is the first telescope of its kind: it is the first digital radio
telescope and has no moving parts. In contrast to classical dish-like
radio antennae, LOFAR consists of a set of simple, small radio antennae.
One of the world fastest supercomputers, IBM's 'blue gene' located in
Groningen, correlates all incoming data. Its computing power of 27
Teraflops and its memory of 1 Petabyte are needed to digest the huge data
rate of 500 Gbits/second that comes in from hundreds of stations. The
computer combines the data from the different antennae such that LOFAR
acts as a giant radio-telescope with an equivalent dish-size of several hundred
kilometres. Thus, astronomers will be able to observe the sky with
unprecedented resolution in an almost unexplored part of the electromagnetic
spectrum. Also, the digital nature of the telescope allows astronomers to
observe in several directions at the same time.
LOFAR is currently under construction by the radio-astronomical institute
ASTRON in Dwingeloo in the Netherlands. In Western Frisia, the assembly of
the first of 77 core stations has started. The capabilities of LOFAR
can be increased tremendously by extending it to a European level,
thus creating a European Sensor Network. The GLOW consortium
plans to build a total of twelve LOFAR stations at sites in Germany -
of which six are planned in more detail already (Bremen, Effelsberg,
Garching, Hamburg, Jülich, Tautenburg and Tremsdorf). The first LOFAR
station with a size of 110 times 60 metres will be constructed this year
near the Effelsberg 100m radio telescope in collaboration by ASTRON and
the Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie in Bonn.
Local contact: Dr. Benedetta Ciardi
Contact for the global project: Dr. Rainer Beck, Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie, Bonn (rbeck@mpifr-bonn.mpg.de)
More information LOFAR: www.lofar.org
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