Seminar: The Cosmic Rays Key Science Project and LOFAR

Dr Clancy James 

Radbout Universiteit Nijmegen

LOFAR from the air.  Credit: ASTRON.

Download the pdf poster.

LOFAR, the Low Frequency Array, is the largest of the new generation of fully digital radio telescopes. The Cosmic Rays Key Science Project (CR KSP) aims to take advantage of the flexibility provided by LOFAR’s digital system to detect the ultra-short (sub-microsecond) pulses produced by the interaction of high-energy cosmic particles in the Earth’s atmosphere and on the Moon. In this talk, I will describe LOFAR’s two cosmic-ray detection modes, the spin-off projects provided by the required high-time-resolution detection and imaging capabilities, and the pros and cons of giant digital telescope arrays such as LOFAR for performing innovative radio astronomy. Being the only Square Kilometre Array pathfinder project searching for cosmic particles, the experience of LOFAR’s CR KSP will give the best indication on the feasibility of performing this and other, similarly innovative, science with future radio telescopes.