Speaker
Description
The LOFAR Low Band Antenna (LBA) system makes LOFAR the only telescope capable of ultra-low frequency (<100 MHz) observations at high resolution. Working at these frequencies is challenging due to the low signal-to-noise ratio and ionospheric disturbances. Developments in the calibration strategies allowed us to reach thermal noise and even attempt <30 MHz imaging and long-baseline imaging.
In this talk, I will make an overview on the upgrades made to the Pipeline for LOFAR LBA (PiLL). The strategy is being successfully used in an increasing number of publications, and it is important for the LOFAR community to know its performance, improvements, and limitations. I will also give a status update on the LOFAR LBA Sky Survey (LoLSS), that aims to cover the sky at dec > 24 deg in the frequency range 42-66 MHz, reaching the sensitivity of 1 mJy/b and the resolution of 15 arcsec. At the moment, the data reduction of the 1974 fields has started and several images per day are being prepared. When the process will be finished, the data will be internally and then publicly released as LoLSS-DR2. Finally, I will outline the plans for the expansion of the LBA surveys with LOFAR 2.0 through the LBA LOFAR Community Sky Survey (LLoCuSS) project.
