The ILT reaches the Baltic Sea!

© ASTRON

During the Board meeting of October 2 2019, the International LOFAR Telescope (ILT) welcomed Latvia as a new member of the ILT Foundation. The full membership of the Latvia-LOFAR consortium was signed by Prof. Kãrlis Krěsliņš, director of the Venstpils University for applied Sciences (VUAS) on behalf of Latvia-LOFAR, and by ILT Board Chair Prof. Philip Best. The signature ceremony was witnessed by the ILT Board members including Prof. Indra Dedze, who will act as representative of the Latvian consortium on the Board.

The ILT is a European network of radio antennas, connected by a high-speed fibre optic network. Of the 52 antenna stations, 38 are in the Netherlands, 6 in Germany, 3 in Poland and 1 each in France, England, Sweden, Ireland and now also Latvia. Italy was the previous country to join the ILT in 2018, after signing an agreement to purchase a new-generation LOFAR station to be located in Medicina. ASTRON led the development and now upgrade of LOFAR and is the coordinating operational entity for the International LOFAR Telescope.

The Latvia-LOFAR consortium is led by the Ventspils University for Applied Sciences and includes the Riga Technical University and the University of Latvia. The brand new LOFAR station LV614 is located in Irbene, near Venstpils and was successfully completed in August 2019.

The Latvian membership of the ILT not only has significantly enlarged the long-baseline capabilities of LOFAR, but also will contribute to new exiting science with this radio telescope.

We welcome Latvia in the ILT family!