LOFAR - Heino Falcke (SETI Internal)

We are currently commissioning the Low Frequency Array (LOFAR), which is the first of a new generation of digital radio telescopes using phased array technology. Key science areas of LOFAR are the Epoch of Reionization, Surveys, Transients and Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays. Currently, LOFAR is regularly observing pulsars and is producing the first images at frequencies from 20 - 200 MHz with resolutions from 11'' down to 0.3'' -- more than an order of magnitude improvement over previous facilities. In addition, LOFAR is opening up a completely new window to high-time resolution astrophysics using transient buffer boards (TBBs). The TBBs in principle provide access to time scales from seconds down to nanoseconds over field-of-views ranging from 2000 to 20.000 square degrees while preserving the full resolution of the interferometer. A first application of TBBs was the study of radio emission of cosmic rays and neutrinos hitting earth and Moon. In the future they can also be used to search for fast (astrophysical) radio transients (FRATs), including, e.g., making blind searches for giant flares from pulsars and other sources. In addition, we are currently investigating how this new technique can be used to conduct extensive SETI projects. The potential advantages are: broad frequency coverage, very large field of view, and the ability to localize and reject near-field interference signals.