LOFAR Aerial Photos – Nançay

Another of the LOFAR sites has become visible in aerial imagery. The French site at Nançay can now be seen in Apple's Maps.app, which is supplied with iPhones and iPads. If you want to find it yourself, here are the co-ordinates: 47°22.54'N, 2°11.56'E, or go to Nançay and look for the large T-shaped antenna array north of the town. Under the left "arm" of the T, you'll find the LOFAR site.

Photo: Apple Maps.app.

Sodankylä from the air

As you might have seen on the EISCAT_3D web log recently, there has been a great little video posted on YouTube by Tarmo Laakso, which shows a flight along the Kitinen River in the Sodankylä area.

You can watch for Sodankylä Geophysical Observatory. The Tähtelä site starts to appear at 2:49, with the EISCAT 32m dish coming into view at 2:54 and the Polaria main building at 2:56.

Aerial photograph of KAIRA

Our colleagues at EISCAT_3D have posted on their weblog an article about the first high-resolution aerial-photograph of the KAIRA site.

The author (Thomas Ulich) wrote:

" We just learnt that the MapSite of the Finnish National Land Survey (Maanmittauslaitos) has updated aerial photography from the Kilpisjärvi area where the Kilpisjärvi Atmospheric Imaging Receiver Array (KAIRA) is located. The images were taken in late summer 2012, and astonishingly one can just about make out the 3m x 3m ground planes of the LBA aerials in the circular area south of the HBA tiles. "

Also in their article is a link to the high-resolution image of the KAIRA location on the MapSite directly. Note that the images are copyright of the Finnish National Land Survey.

LOFAR station UK608

It is always interesting to see new LOFAR stations start to appear on the satellite photographs and Internet mapping sites. And one of the more recent additions is the LOFAR station in the United Kingdom. This is a particularly good site to look at, as there is a 25m dish nearby for comparison. It certainly gives a good idea of the scale of the LOFAR site!

This particular resolution photograph was probably taken in late 2011. We can tell this based on the materials around the LOFAR field itself and the state of the field. There are also cars parked near the gate to the main observatory compound, which would date from the time of the preparation of painting works for the 25m dish.

View Larger Map Get Directions View Bird's Eye

The UK608 station was officially opened by Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell on 20 September 2010. Its LOFAR designation is UK608. It is operated by the LOFAR-UK consortium, which is the largest astronomy collaboration in the United Kingdom, involving scientists from 24 institutes. LOFAR-UK also have a web log (http://blog.lofar-uk.org/) for their project.

References:

• Chilbolton Observatory on Bing Maps
• LOFAR-UK home page

Aerial photographs of LOFAR-UK Chilbolton

Some dramatic photographs have just been posted on the Press and Media Image Library of the UK's Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC). These show the LOFAR station at Chilbolton, Hampshire, UK, as seen from the air. Although there are plenty of photographs of various LOFAR stations from the ground, and plenty of diagrams showing the layout of the sites, this is a good opportunity to get a bird's-eye view of what a station looks like.

The credit for all these images goes to Guy Gratton, who took the photographs during the afternoon of Friday 8th April 2011, and who graciously gave permission for their use by the STFC/LOFAR community. The images were taken from an aeroplane flying at an altitude of approximately 300 metres (1000 ft) over the site, through an open door on the aircraft to avoid any window reflections.

The LOFAR-UK site, as seen from the air.
(Photo: Guy Gratton (c) 2011, hosted by STFC.)

The above photograph is a great way to appreciate the scale of an international LOFAR station. The dish near the top of the photograph is the 25m parabola of the Chilbolton Observatory.

Looking specifically at the LOFAR-UK station (LOFAR-ID = UK608). The HBA
is on the left and the LBA is on the right. If you look carefully, you can just
make out the RF-container in the space between where the two fields meet
and the access road. (Photo: Guy Gratton (c) 2011, hosted by STFC.)

Banking away from the LOFAR field, you
can see the Chilbolton 25m dish (Photo:
Guy Gratton (c) 2011, hosted by STFC.)

When you start to move further back, more the surrounding facilities become apparent. Apart from the main 25m dish, there is a small 4.5m dish on the right-hand side, just below the LOFAR compound. (Don't forget you can click on images for a slightly enlarged view.)

Looking at the site from even further away, the

scale of the Chilbolton Observatory becomes clear.
(Photo: Guy Gratton (c) 2011, hosted by STFC.)

Check the STFC's Press and Media Image Library for all high-quality photographs of the LOFAR-UK station. You can also find full-resolution versions of some of the above photographs, suitable for use in printed media. Thanks goes to the Chilbolton Observatory and UK608 project teams, the RAL-Space outreach team and, of course, Guy Gratton for the great photographs.