:: LOFAR - Astronomy

LOFAR specifications

Frequency Range	Low Band	30-80 MHz^(a)
	High Band	110-240 MHz
Number of Antenna’s	Low Band	7700
	High Band (4x4 tiles)	7700
Polarization		Full Stokes
Configuration	Core	3200 antenna’s (both low & high bands) 32 stations baselines approx. 100m-2 km
	Extended Array	4500 antenna’s (both low & high bands) 45 stations baselines up to 100 km(a)
Digitized Bandwidth	In the following ranges 10-90 MHz, 110-190 MHz or 210-290 MHz	100 MHz bandwidth
	In 170-230 MHz range	80 MHz bandwidth
Expected Processing Capacity	Full Array Imaging Mode(Sum of Bandwidth of all Beams)	32 MHz
	Core Imaging Mode32 core stations 4 MHz BW @ 4 kHz resolution	~200 beams

^(a) All numbers refer to Initial Array – extension to lower frequency (10-30 MHz) and longer baselines ~400 km are being considered

Frequency dependent Array Performance (Initial array)

Frequency	Point Source Sensitivity^(b)		Effective Collecting Area		Beam Size
	Core	Full Array	Core	Full Array	Core	Full Array
30 MHz	4.8 mJy	2.0 mJy	7.9x10⁴ m²	1.9x10⁵ m²	21’	25”
75 MHz	3.3 mJy	1.3 mJy	1.2x10⁴ m²	3.0x10⁴ m²	8.3’	10”
120 MHz	0.17 mJy	0.07 mJy	7.9x10⁴ m²	1.9x10⁵ m²	5.2’	6.0”
200 MHz	0.15 mJy	0.06 mJy	2.9x10⁴ m²	6.9x10⁴ m²	3.1’	3.5”

^(b) Sensitivity quoted for 1 hour integration time, 2 polarizations and 4 MHz bandwidth

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