The LOFAR Science meeting, co-sponsored by RadioNet, will consist of three events:
1) The LOFAR Users Meeting – May 20, 2019. The meeting will be organised by the ASTRON Radio Observatory (RO) and will be open to the whole LOFAR community. It will promote a wide-ranging dialogue between the RO and members of the Key Science Projects (KSPs), researchers with approved LOFAR projects, as well as any potential LOFAR users. RO staff will demonstrate the current status of the LOFAR instrument and summarise plans for future development of software and procedures.
2) The LOFAR Community Science Workshop – May 21-22, 2019. This workshop will bring together all active LOFAR users, including members of the KSPs as well as any other researchers from the European and global community involved with, or interested in, LOFAR science. The workshop programme will cover the gamut of the LOFAR science case from cosmology and extragalactic research to galactic, planetary, and solar system topics. It will feature a wide range of talks on exciting new scientific results from the Cycle observing programs.
3) LOFAR 2.0 discussion – May 23, 2019. LOFAR 2.0 is a staged expansion of the scientific and technical capabilities of LOFAR. The sensitivity and discovery potential of LOFAR will be greatly enhanced, enabling pioneering astrophysical research using the lowest radio frequencies visible from Earth. During this session, the plans for the LOFAR upgrade will be presented and discussed in detail with the community of users.
The meeting will provide an important forum for LOFAR users to give their feedback on LOFAR operations and development, and highlight, where required, the need for improvement or change. It will bring the international LOFAR user community up to speed with the latest LOFAR science results and will promote the exchange of ideas and the development of new collaborations. The Radio Observatory is striving to grow the community of LOFAR users by making more science-ready data available as well as organising events such as this meeting. Special emphasis will be given in the programme to younger members of the collaboration to give them a chance to showcase their results and develop their career.
The meeting will include discussions on LOFAR technical development activities which will enable a state-of-the-art and highly productive telescope from 2020-2030; the development of substantially more sophisticated calibration techniques and a major enhancement to the LOFAR station electronics will ensure that the telescope remains unique and scientifically impactful in the SKA-era. More information here.