GLOW

The German radio astronomy enthusiatstic institutes are brought together in the GLOW (German LOng Wavelength) Consortium.

The five German LOFAR stations

Currently, there are five LOFAR stations funded in Germany. Their locations are indicated as red diamonds in the left image, yellow diamonds indicate stations that are planned but have not been funded yet, the location of the central core in Exloo is also indicated as a red diamond. The funding for the various stations was attained from very different sources.

The five funded stations are:

• Effelsberg
• Unterweilenbach/Garching bei Muenchen
• Tautenburg
• Potsdam
• Jülich

More details about GLOW can be found here.

1) Effelsberg - Max-Planck-Institute for Radio Astronomy

The LOFAR station is built next to the 100m Effelsberg telescope. The LBA part of the LOFAR station was already placed in winter 2006/07. In summer 2009 also the second part - the HBA antennas - were placed.

More details and pictures can be found here.

2) Unterweilenbach/Garching - Max-Planck-Institute for Astrophysics

This station is situated in the North of Bavaria and hosted by the Max-Planck-Institute for Astrophysics in Garching. In winter 2008/2009, the low band antennas were installed. Soon the station will be completed.

More details and pictures can be found here.

3) Tautenburg - Thüringer Landessternwarte Tautenburg

This station is built on the terrain of and next to the optical telescope of the Thüringische Landessternwarte Tautenburg. It is located about 10 kilometers north-east of Jena. The LBA were erected in the end of 2008 and have seen first light in April 2009.

More details and pictures can be found here.

4) Potsdam-Bornim - Astrophysikalisches Institut Potsdam

The Astrophysikalische Insitute Potsdam plans to build a LOFAR station in Bornim close to Potsdam. The picture shows where the antenna fields will be erected. In the end of the summer 2009, the first hardware will be placed.

More information and pictures can be found here.

5) Jülich - University of Bochum & Jacobs University Bremen & Forschungszentrum Jülich

The universities of Bochum and the Jacobs University Bremen building in collaboration with the Forschungszentrum Jülich a LOFAR station in the vicinity of the Forschungszentrum. The latter will also host the network point through which all the German data will flow and will host at least 2 Petabyte of storage for LOFAR data. More involvement is envisaged.