The Low-Frequency Array (LOFAR and LOFAR UK)
LOFAR is a radio telescope currently being built in The Netherlands and is the first of the 'new generation' of radio telescopes, where the telescope is able to see the whole sky at once and the amount of sky that is able to be mapped is only dependent on the computing power. LOFAR will observe the Universe between 20-240 MHz, with a gap at 80-110MHz which the FM radio band occupies (e.g. Radio 1).
The University of Hertfordshire is one of the UK institutes involved in the LOFAR UK consortium which is planning to join the LOFAR project. The UK project aims to build several LOFAR stations in the UK allowing higher-spatial resolution observations to be made. The key science goals of the LOFAR telescope are to make deep extragalactic surveys to unprecedented sensitivity, map the transient radio sky, detect the neutral hydrogen emission within the Epoch of Reionisation, study the Sun and the Solar System. At UH our principal aims focus on the extragalactic surveys (Jarvis), AGN variability from the transient surveys (Hardcastle), radio emission from Brown Dwarfs and extrasolar planets (Burningham).