2014 LOFAR Science Workshop conference dinner

The conference dinner for the 2014 LOFAR Science Workshop was held in the Pakhuis de Zwijger on the waterfront in Amsterdam. With so many fantastic talks during the day, the entire evening was abuzz with amazing discussions and ideas. And, to keep everything focused further, the organisers had asked for speakers to provide high-resolution images of their projects and results. These were projected onto nine massive screens that surrounded the eating area.

LOFAR Science 2014

This week, is the LOFAR 2014 International Meeting, being held in Amsterdam.It features the LOFAR Users Meeting, the LOFAR Community Science Workshop and a workshop about LOFAR’s first all-sky survey, the Multifrequency Snapshot Sky Survey (MSSS).

KAIRA will feature in the LOFAR Community Science Workshop. This part of the conference is the third annual meeting of the LOFAR science collaboration since the onset of regular LOFAR science operations. These workshops aim to bring together members of the wider collaboration including active members of the Key Science Project teams as well as various EU and international members of the LOFAR user community. This part of the conference will last two full days and  will feature a wide range of talks on technical developments, software enhancements, improvements in calibration and imaging techniques, and of course exciting new scientific results. The workshop program will cover the gamut of the LOFAR science case from cosmology and extragalactic research to Galactic, planetary, and solar system topics.

Link:
http://www.astron.nl/lofarscience2014/

The last sweet

In August 2013, we attended the EISCAT symposium in the United Kingdom. At the conference we were all issued with a tin of "rock"... a type of British sweet or candy, where a design is run through the sweet using pulled sugar.

In this case the design was "EISCAT 2013".

Well, I've finally (almost) finished that tin of sweets.

The last one!

Of course the tin was accompanied by a bag of about 500 others, so it was quite a challenge. I suspect I've now got some form of Type-43 Diabetes too.

We had considered posting the sweets back to Mike Kosch (the coference organiser). We'd send them one at a time. One each week. After week. After week.

But no... we just ate them all.

(Hmm... however, I wonder if the other bag of 500 sweets is still around. When I last heard it was in Tromsö, Norway.)

In any case, I guess it really is 2014 now.

EISCAT symposium banquet

Today we have the last entry from the EISCAT International Symposium. On Thursday evening, we had a banquet at the magnificent Lancaster Town Hall at Dalton Square. There is a post and some more photographs of the event at the EISCAT_3D web log.

Arriving at the conference dinner. (Photo: Th. Ulich)

The evening included some musical entertainment as well. There was an impressive recital given on the pipe organ and the courses of the sumptuous meal were punctuated by the enchanting music of the Tempest Flute Trio.

More conference outing photographs

Having taken the M/V Swan across Windermere, we then alighted to catch a steam train from Lakeside up to Haverthwaite.

Steam locomotive "Repulse" pulls in to lakeside railway station.

Alighting the train at Haverthwaite.

Note: there was a discussion about the "thwaite" part of the name Haverthwaite. Apparently it is, as we guessed, of norse origin. It comes from þveit meaning a clearing or open space of land.

Conference outing photographs

Friday photos... today we have some photographs from the conference outing. As scientists, we rarely get out, so the conference organisers were kind enough to take us on a quick tour to see the local landscape. Of course we continued to discuss science, results, data, experiments, etc. during the trip, but it was a chance to get some fresh air and see the outside world!

The tour took us on the motor vessel "Swan" across Windermere (which is a mere, not a lake!)

At the pier

M/V Swan pulls in.

Heading out

Nearly at Lakeside

EISCAT 2013 conference photo

Today's photograph is the conference photograph from the EISCAT 2013 International Symposium.

The conference is still in progress (until Friday), and today there will be a number of KAIRA talks.

Website:   http://eiscat2013.lancs.ac.uk/

EISCAT 2013 underway

This week we are having the EISCAT International Symposium at Lancaster University in the United Kingdom. Today's photograph was taken by Thomas Ulich, who made this panorama of the participants just as the conference was getting started. Although it has been posted already on the E3D weblog, it is such a great shot that we asked it we could put it here too!

EISCAT 2013 International Symposium (Photo: Th. Ulich)

The speaker at that particular moment was Craig Heinselman (EISCAT Director) who was giving the introduction presentation.

You can follow the progress here on the EISCAT_3D web log, on the EISCAT_3D Facebook page, as well as on three different Twitter feeds: @EISCAT_3D, @EISCATUK and our own @KairaProject.

EISCAT workshop 2013

Starting with the reception this evening, we have the EISCAT International Symposium 2013, which is being held in Lancaster, United Kingdom (although after yesterday's post we'll need to double check that!). The EISCAT Scientific Association is an international research organisation operating three incoherent scatter radar systems, at 931 MHz, 224 MHz and 500 MHz, in Northern Scandinavia. It is funded and operated by research councils of Norway, Sweden, Finland, Japan, China and the United Kingdom — collectively, the EISCAT Associates. The EISCAT Associates organise a biennial scientific symposium and this year's is being held in the UK at Lancaster University.

There are three presentations about KAIRA...

• Scintillation with EISCAT, KAIRA, and LOFAR: New perspectives on the ionosphere and interplanetary medium, Fallows, Bisi, Hardwick, McKay-Bukowski, Vierinen, McCrea and Dorrian
• KAIRA receiver as a multi-frequency riometer, Kero, McKay-Bukowski, Solonen, Enell and Vierinen
• KAIRA — New science, new users, McKay-Bukowski, Vierinen, Kero, Fallows, Virtanen, Ulich, Orispää, Wucknitz, Postila and Lehtinen 

... and one special presentation:

• KAIRA – A Multipurpose Radio Receiver in Support of EISCAT_3D 

However, there will be lots of talks related to the fields of research that KAIRA is used to investigate and an excellent selection of astrophysical and geophysical results. In additional to our regular articles, we will be reporting on this important meeting during the week and posting about it via Twitter (@KairaProject)

Website:  http://eiscat2013.lancs.ac.uk/

Manchester Hauptbahnhof

He thought he was going to England...

Next week, there is the EISCAT 2013 International Symposium, which is being held in Lancaster, United Kingdom. Our KAIRA project will be well-represented there, with a number of talks being given... more on that later. Also, one of our regular web log contributors will be there too and, like most of us, will be travelling this weekend. However, what was somewhat perplexing was when the tickets arrived at the observatory for him they were from Deutsche Bahn and in German:

Bitte einsteigen! (Klicken Sie um das Bild zu vergrößern)

We think the destinations are correct (or is there a Manchester in Germany somewhere)? Or did they think that Sodankylä is in Lichtenstein? Or that Herr Roininen is from Austria? Has DB (Deutsche Bahn) taken over the running of the British railway network?

Hopefully it just means that the trains will run on time!

International CAWSES-II Symposium

CAWSES-II (Climate And Weather of the Sun-Earth System II) is a five-year (2009-2013) international program sponsored by SCOSTEP (Scientific Committee on Solar-Terrestrial Physics) established with an aim of significantly enhancing our understanding of the space environment and its impacts on life and society.

The main functions of CAWSES-II are to help coordinate international activities in observations, modelling, and applications crucial to achieving this understanding, to involve scientists in both developed and developing countries, and to provide educational opportunities for students of all levels.

This International CAWSES-II Symposium will provide an excellent opportunity to discuss the scientific accomplishments of CAWSES-II and look forward to SCOSTEP's future programs at a moment toward the end of its five-year period. The symposium will cover the six major themes of CAWSES-II tasks:

1. What are the solar influences on the Earth's climate?,
2. How will geospace respond to an altered climate?,
3. How does short-term solar variability affect the geospace environment?,
4. What is the geospace response to variable inputs from the lower atmosphere?,
5. Capacity Building,
6. Informatics and eScience.

The symposium offers keynotes/lectures that will be interesting for all participants every morning and more specific sessions of presentations in the afternoon.

Abstract submission deadline: 7 July, 2013
Symposium Date: 18-22 November, 2013

Website: http://www.stelab.nagoya-u.ac.jp/cawses2013/

Dynamical Processes of the Cusp/Polar Cap Ionosphere

At the Autumn meeting of the American Geophysical Union, there will be a special session entitled: "Dynamical Processes of the Cusp/Polar Cap Ionosphere". The AGU meeting this year will be held on 9-13 December 2013 in San Francisco, USA. Submissions on all aspects of cusp/polar cap dynamics are welcome. Abstract submission is open now and will be closed on 6 August. More details on the session can be found at AGU Fall {=Autumn}Meeting website:
https://fallmeeting.agu.org/2013/scientific-program/session-search/sessions/sm009-dynamical-processes-of-the-cusppolar-cap-ionosphere/

EWASS 2013

The European Week of Astronomy and Space Science (EWASS) will be held on 8 - 13 July 2013 in Logomo Centre in Turku, Finland. Turku is the oldest university town and the former capital of Finland.

Turku is also well-known for its location in the beautiful archipelago. The time of the meeting, early July, is usually a pleasant season in Southwest Finland with plenty of sunshine and about 20 hours of daylight. Turku, with its seven hills and the river Aurajoki, has a lively cultural life with several museums and art galleries, and it was elected one of the cultural capital cities of Europe for the year 2011. We look forward to seeing you in Turku in July 2013!

The deadline for abstract submission is 30th April 2013.

The website is: http://www.astro.utu.fi/EWASS2013/

KAIRA presentations at Dalfsen

Just one of the KAIRA talks.

We've now had the Single-Station meeting at Dalfsen, following the Science workshop. The meeting has been extremely well attended, with all the big names in the field present. The fact that several critical meetings have been combined has certainly helped. There is the science workshop, the board meeting, the single-station meeting and the International LOFAR technical operations meeting).

The KAIRA project has also been well-represented at the meeting. In total, there have been five KAIRA presentations made so far, with one more scheduled for tomorrow. They include:

— Scintillation Studies: Updates and New Perspectives
— KAIRA Construction and Commissioning,
— RCU 357 mode observations
— KAIRA Riometry and Incoherent Scatter Radar
— KAIRA outreach
— KAIRA station operations update


It's not over yet (we have the International LOFAR Telescope Technical Operations meeting in the morning), but so far it has been a highly productive meeting with lots of new and interesting science, engineering and ideas!

LOFAR Science Meeting in Dalfsen

Dalfsen, de Westermolen.
Image: Michiel Verbeek

The LOFAR science meeting, will be held this week (19-22th March 2013) in Dalfsen, Netherlands. The first two days will be for science with the overall LOFAR network. Then there will be a day dedicated specifically to single-station science with LOFAR stations. Finally, the last day will be the technical operations meeting, to discuss issues with the running, maintenance, upgrade and enhancement of the LOFAR systems.

This will be the first meeting of the International LOFAR Telescope since formal operations began last year. There will be over 100 attendees at the meeting, making it a very exciting event.

KAIRA will be strongly represented on the single-station day, as this is our primary mode of operations. It will also be a great opportunity for us to show-case some of our initial results and outline our plans for the future work.

This is a fantastic chance to bring more attention to the science results already coming out of LOFAR, and the fact that full operations are now happening. No doubt there will be a number of significant discoveries and results announced during the next few days, and we'll be reporting them here and on twitter (@KairaProject) when we can.

Link:  http://www.astron.nl/lofarscience2013/

ERIS 2013

Registration for the 2013 European Radio Interferometry School – ERIS 2013 — is now open. This is the Fifth European Radio Interferometry School and it will take place in Dwingeloo (The Netherlands), in the week of 9-13 September 2013.  ERIS will provide a week of lectures and tutorials on how to get scientific results from radio interferometry. Topics covered include:

• Calibration and imaging of continuum, spectral line, and polarization data
• Low frequency (LOFAR domain), cm-wave (e-MERLIN domain), decimetre-wave (HI/OH domain), high frequency (ALMA/IRAM domain), and very long baseline interferometry
• Extracting the information from astronomical data and interpreting the results
• Choosing the most suitable array and observing plan for your project

A preliminary programme is posted on the ERIS webpage: http://www.astron.nl/eris2013/programme.php

Participants are expected to bring fairly recent Linux or MAC o/s laptops with tens GB disk space. Instructions for installing data reduction packages and downloading data will be provided nearer the time of the event. Most examples will be drawn from m-, cm-, and mm-wave instruments such as LOFAR, WSRT, JVLA, EVN, e-Merlin, and ALMA.

Registration will be open until April 1st 2013, although the conference organisers say that the event is likely to be very popular and that people should register as soon as possible to secure a place. http://www.astron.nl/eris2013/registration.php

Link: http://www.astron.nl/eris2013/

Nordic Physics Days 2013

The Nordic Physics Days will be held in Lund, Sweden on June 12-14, 2013. The Department of Physics at Lund University will host the conference in cooperation with the Nordic Physical Societies. The meeting is the third in a series of meetings in which the first was held in Copenhagen in 2009 and the second in Helsinki 2011. The meeting will consist of plenary lectures, parallel sessions and poster sessions. The Nordic Physics Days is a conference both for researchers and teachers in physics.

Parallel sessions are arranged by expert committees in astronomy/astrophysics, atomic and molecular physics, bio- and softmatter physics, nuclear physics, particle physics, nano physics and solid state physics. Additional sessions will be arranged by expert committees in education, women in physics and physics and society. A panel discussion on large facilities will be arranged during the first evening.

The deadline for submission of abstracts is 15^th March 2013.

For more information, visit the Nordic Physics Days website at: http://www.fysik.lu.se/english/npd2013/

KKRRiT 2012 in Gdansk

Earlier this month, I attended the KKRRiT 2012 in Gdansk, Poland. This was to give presentations on LOFAR and KAIRA to the Polish community and to continue discussions with the POLFAR community on future possible collaborations. It was a great conference and there were a lot of very interesting results shown and productive discussions afterwards. The conference was followed by a trip to Warsaw to meet with some of the POLFAR team there. As we have reported before, there are plans in Poland to build three LOFAR stations in future, so there should be lots of interesting news coming from our colleagues down south soon!

KKRRiT 2012 conference photograph.

Inverse Problems Africa 2012

Just in case you are wondering, you haven't accidentally stumbled into the wrong web log. However, although KAIRA is an Arctic project, we have some other collaborations and connections with other interesting project in other parts of the world. The following is posted on behalf of Lassi Roininen, from SGO.

The Inverse Problems Africa 2012 school and conference will be held in Bahir Dar, Ethiopia. These two back-to-back events will be held in October 2012. The events will cover both the theoretical and practical aspects of inverse problems in mathematics and physics with applications.

Featured topics include:

1. Statistical inversion and incoherent scatter radar. Organiser: Markku Lehtinen, Finland, University of Oulu, Sodankylä Geophysical Observatory
   

2. Epidemiology models and Markov chain Monte Carlo methods. Organiser: Heikki Haario, Finland, Lappeenranta University of Technology, Department of Mathematics and Physics
   

3. Stochastic differential equations and their applications to pollutant dispersion in shallow waters. Organiser: Wilson Mahera, Tanzania, University of Dar es Salaam, Department of Mathematics
   

4. Tomographic imaging. Organiser: Samuli Siltanen, Finland, University of Helsinki, Department of Mathematics and Statistics

Full details about the school and conference (including details about registration and travel) can be found at http://www.inverse-problems.org/