page_title: Low-Frequency Array (LOFAR)
section_title: Other stations
hierarchical_section_title: Low-Frequency Array (LOFAR) / Technical information / Other stations
caption_attribution_description: English: The Irish Low-Frequency Array (I-LOFAR) at Birr Castle in Ireland is a radio telescope that observes the universe at low radio frequencies during the day and night. It is part of the largest telescope in the world, with telescope stations in the array stretching across Europe between Ireland and Poland. This effectively gives the combined virtual telescope a continent-sized baseline aperture of almost 2,000 km. There are 96 high-band antennas (110–240 MHz) contained within the large, black mosaic of tiles in the foreground, and 96 low-band dipole antennas (10–90 MHz), the array of poles resembling tall sewing pins in the background held in place by ground anchors, or guy wires; visually, the low-band array resembles a swarm of tripods. The data from this and the other telescopes in the LOFAR array are sent by high-bandwidth fibre optic cables to Groningen in the Netherlands where they are integrated and analysed by an IBM Blue Gene/P supercomputer.
context_page_description: The Low-Frequency Array, or LOFAR, is a large radio telescope network located mainly in the Netherlands, completed in 2012 by ASTRON, the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy and its international partners, and operated by ASTRON's radio observatory, of the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research.
  LOFAR consists of a vast array of omnidirectional antennas using a new concept in which the signals from the separate antennas are not combined in real time as they are in most array antennas. The electronic signals from the antennas are digitized, transported to a central digital processor, and combined in software to emulate a conventional antenna. The project is based on an interferometric array of radio telescopes using about 20,000 small antennas concentrated in at least 48 stations. Forty of these stations are distributed across the Netherlands and were funded by ASTRON. The five stations in Germany, and one each in Great Britain, France, Sweden and Ireland, were funded by these countries. Further stations may also be built in other European countries.
context_section_description: Additionally, a set of LOFAR antennas is deployed at the KAIRA (Kilpisjärvi Atmospheric Imaging Receiver Array) near Kilpisjärvi, Finland. This installation functions as a VHF receiver either in stand-alone mode or part of a bistatic radar system together with EISCAT transmitter in Tromsø.
caption: The Irish LOFAR array (I-LOFAR) in Birr, County Offaly.
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