The LOFAR (LOw Frequency Array) telescope is the world’s longest baseline interferometer operating at low radio frequencies (down to 10-15 MHz), and will remain so for the foreseeable future, into the SKA-low era. During its past more than a decade of operations, it has made revolutionary discoveries (mapping lightning at unprecedented detail and discovering and characterizing solar-type activity at nearby stars, to give just a few examples).
The facility is currently undergoing an extensive upgrade of nearly all its sub-systems which will enable more automated operations resulting in higher observing efficiency, and even more data throughput, aimed at delivering science-ready data products.
A key aspect of improving the observational efficiency is monitoring the observing conditions, especially at the lowest frequencies, to ascertain which science programs can get time on sky depending on their observing condition requirements. Space weather related ionospheric activity and solar bursts especially at solar maximum can severely limit useful observing windows.
We aim to monitor the ionosphere continuously during operations and construct a metric based (among other inputs) on the ionospheric scintillation index (S4) as well as monitoring solar activity. For the latter, we’ll be using the observing setup and analysis pipelines developed as part of the Incremental Development Of LOFAR for Space weather (IDOLS) project as well as efforts within LIRG activities.