LOFAR and a Grid for European Astronomy

LOFAR started as a new and innovative effort to force a breakthrough in sensitivity for astronomical observations at radio frequencies below 250 MHz. New concepts and technologies were required to make the next step in sensitivity needed to unravel the secrets of the early universe.

LOFAR is the first telescope of a new generation using large numbers of simple antennas instead of large mechanical dishes. The electronic signals from the antennas are digitised, transported over glass fiber and combined in software to emulate a conventional antenna. Current data transport requirements are in the range of many Tera-bits/sec and the processing power needed is tens of Tera-FLOPS, distributed over the network.

It was soon realised that LOFAR could be turned into a more generic Wide Area Sensor Network. Sensors for geophysical research and studies in precision agriculture have been incorporated in LOFAR already. Several more applications are being considered, given the increasing interest in sensor networks that “bring the environment on-line.”

The capabilities of LOFAR can be increased dramatically by broadening the scope to a European level. The European Gèant network is already being used to connect existing radio telescopes in the EVN program. It would be a natural next step to create a Europe-wide sensor grid for astronomy by adding LOFAR stations to these sites. As a European Sensor Grid, LOFAR could provide essential ground-based information complementary to earth-observation satellites, and would thus form an important contribution to the European Global Monitoring for the Environment and Security (GMES) program.

Program:

1. Introduction: Real-time sensor-grids as a next step in Grid processing [Marco de Vos]

2. Demonstration: Distributed processing of a 128 Gbps astronomical datastream from the LOFAR Initial Test Station [ASTRON, RUG-RC]

3. Presentation: Grid processing in astronomy [SARA/ASTRON]

4. Demonstration: Grid processing of Envisat data using GridAssist and BEAT [DutchSpace BV, Science & Technology BV]

5. Presentation: The use of Grid processing for geophysical databases [TNO-NITG]

6. Demonstration: LOFAR@School - an educational distributed processing project

7. Presentation: Sensor-Grids as ground-based complement to GMES [Joris van Enst]

8. Brainstorm session: Is the Grid concept essential for Wide Area Sensor Networks?

9. Concluding talk: True High Performance Computing in a Grid environment? [Arjan van Gemund (S&T/TUD)

Presentations will be brief and are intended to provoke discussion. Demonstrations are intended to be “life” and interactive. With the brainstorm session we expect to generate ideas and contacts for further research collaborations.