Telescope Telescope the size of the Netherlands-Europe Frequencies: 30 – 240 MHz Interferometer baselines ~100 km European expansion to 1000 km Square Kilometer Array (SKA) pathfinder Phased aperture array design No dishes ⇒
antenna: 30 – 80 MHz 48/96 antennas per station • 36 NL + 8 EU stations of dipoles • Replace big dishes by many cheap dipoles • No moving parts: electronic beam steering • Flexible digital beam forming LOFAR Antennas High band tiles:120 – 240 MHz 96 tiles/station, 4x4 antennas/tile
• BG/P Data reception, transpose, correlation, beam-forming, de-dispersion • Storage system Short term storage of data, ~1 PByte, >100Gbps I/O • Offline cluster Calibration, data products, off-line analysis, ~10 TFLOPS Blue Gene/P Blue Gene/P Blue Gene/P
CS010 CS001 CS008 CS016 Rollout Timeline Dec 08 CEP hardware tender closed Jan 08 First NL station operational Feb 08 Partial CEP storage and offline cluster Apr 09 5 Remote stations and superstation Apr 09 Standard imaging pipeline ready Jun 09 20 NL + 3-4 EU stations completed Aug 09 Global Sky Model survey begins Dec 09 36 NL + 8 EU stations online
• BG/P correlator working • First versions of all major components exist • CEP cluster and storage tender under way Current status Upcoming work • BBS improvements – Ionosphere models – Beam models – More source types • Imager testing • Source detection • Global Sky Model • Major cycle pipeline Streaming bandpass correction (courtesy J. Romein) • 2 single dipoles • 58.6 MHz • 30 min integration
• BG/P correlator working • First versions of all major components exist • CEP cluster and storage tender under way Current status Upcoming work • BBS improvements – Ionosphere models – Beam models – More source types • Imager testing • Source detection • Global Sky Model • Major cycle pipeline New LOFAR distributed imager (from J. Romein)
(DP3) Unflagged Flagged Time Frequency • Automatic flagging Multiple algorithms • Data compression Time and frequency averaging • Simple cal. corrections Clock phases, A-team subtraction
Model • GSM stored as a database (PostgreSQL) • Many predictive functions implemented in database • Python interfaces provided for database access • Prototype already exists (VLSS, WENSS, NVSS, 3C, 8C, .....) • Simulated maps created using external tools (ORGSM, N. Mohan)
Mode Current Status • Beam-formed data format defined • Manual tool to dump raw BF data • Connection to PRESTO pulsar analysis package made (Stappers, Jun 07) HBA 170-230 Mhz Next steps • Tied-array beam forming • Streaming version of BF data writer • Available in Q3 2009 LOFAR CS-1 detection of Pulsar B0329+54
Jupiter bursts (courtesy J.-M. Grießmeier) • Real-time monitoring (sec-msec) • Full frequency coverage (10-240 MHz) • Does not require full array • Can trigger alerts • Can be triggered by alerts ⇒ Available starting Q2 2009
• Testing of observing modes − Global Sky Model survey − Timing survey − Deep Survey KSP fields − Deep EoR KSP fields − Deep RM fields • KSP teams will prepare observing requests • Not scientific observing proposals • Describe specific commissioning goals • Describe expected results and deliverables • Storage and processing estimates • Personnel available (courtesy E. Carretti and G. Bernardi) RM cube from WSRT data
School • Feb 10-12, 2009 • Hosted by ASTRON • Expect 30-40 students • System overview • Pipeline products • Hands-on sessions • Commissioners • Station owners ⇒ Registration open in next few days
Design • Long-term, public archive of LOFAR data products • Support storage and processing capabilities • Based on KSPs (storage, processing, usage patterns) • Support distributed resources (GRID) Current Activities and Status • LOFAR major application in the BigGRID project – Multi PB storage – Several hundreds of computing nodes • LOFAR/BigGRID working group active • Recommendation for hardware infrastructure in Dec 08 • Initial hardware expected in Q3 09 • Commissioning prototype in Q1 09 (100-200 TB) LOFAR Archive
LTA hardware design complete Jan 09 First NL station operational Jan 09 LOFAR prototype archive in place Feb 09 Partial CEP storage and offline cluster Mar 09 VHECR pipeline ready Apr 09 5 Remote stations and superstation Apr 09 Standard imaging pipeline ready May 09 First LTA hardware arrives May 09 Known Pulsar pipeline ready Jun 09 20 NL + 3-4 EU stations completed Aug 09 LOFAR GSM survey begins Dec 09 36 NL + 8 EU stations online Timeline
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