LOFAR in Poland!

In Łazy near Cracov a LOFAR station is operating. It is part of the International LOFAR telescope.

It is one of three stations built in Poland. It's designation is PL 611.

LOFAR map


LOFAR (short for LOw Frequency ARray – meaning a low frequency radio network) was designed and built by ASTRON (Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy), a Dutch agency that unites radio astronomy institutes. LOFAR consists of about 25 000 antennas grupped into so called fields or stations. They are located in a large area in the center of the Netherlands, near Exloo village, as well as in the Duch provinces of Groningen and Friesland. LOFAR stations have also been established in other European countries. LOFAR enables low-frequency observations that open a new window on the universe.

A consortium POLFAR has been formed to implement the project of the Polish part of LOFAR. It consists of: Jagiellonian University (coordinator), University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn, Space Research Centre of Polish Academy of Sciences, University of Zielona Góra, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Center of the Polish Academy of Sciences, University of Szczecin, Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences, Poznan Supercomputing and Networking Center. For the management of three Polish stations a POLFARO group was created. It is led by the University of Warmia and Mazury.

Compared to conventional radio telescopes, LOFAR can map large areas of the sky very quickly. By observing tens of millions of radio sources, astronomers expect to discover many previously unknown phenomena. For more information about LOFAR, click here:: www.astron.nl/telescopes/lofar.