Achievements in reporting period July-December 2009:

During the reporting period (July-December 2009), construction of the first LOFAR stations was taking place at full speep and commissioning observations have been taking place continuously with the available hardware. Interferometric fringes between five LOFAR stations in the Netherlands and Effelsberg in Germany were detected in July, and the number of fully validated stations producing fringes, has been steadily increasing.

The hardware in a total of 24 stations (two of them in Germany) is completed and installation work is continuing at a further 6 stations, including 3 international stations. As of Dec 9, 2009, 14 stations were fully validated and were scheduled for observations, including all six stations located at the “superterp”, at the center of the array. Significant developments have also been taking place in the online and offline computing facilities, the data archive facility and the optical-fiber network.

Forward Look

• Plan for next year – 12 month outlook, more detail in first 6 month (including budget)

The building and commissioning period will be continued throughout the first three quarters of 2010. 94 proposals, 59 for commissioning and early access and 35 for long term projects, were received for the deadline of September 30, 2009. After technical evaluation, the LOFAR programme committeee convened at ASTRON on Dec 9 and 10 to assess the proposals. The committee's recomendations will be incorporated in a rigorous commissioning plan drawn by the LOFAR Astronomical Development team, covering the period until the autumn of 2010. Some of commissioning projects are applicable for TNA funding and they will be observed in the period between the end of 2009 throughout 2010, depending on the availability of the observing resources requested and the commissioning plan .