LOFAR4SpaceWeather (LOFAR4SW) - Increasing European Space-Weather Capability with Europe's Largest Radio Telescope: Steps Toward the Preliminary Design Review (PDR)

The Low Frequency Array (LOFAR) is one of a relatively-new breed of radio-astronomy instruments which are capable of ground-breaking science across multiple domains. LOFAR covers a wide bandwidth in radio frequencies ( 10-250 MHz) at high spatial/temporal resolutions. It consists of a dense core of 24 stations within a 4km diameter near Exloo in The Netherlands, an additional 14 stations spread further afield across the northeast of The Netherlands, and a further 13 international stations (six across Germany, three in northern Poland, and one each in France, Ireland, Sweden, and the UK). Further international sites are under preparations.

LOFAR is one of the world's most-flexible radio instruments with capabilities that enable studies of several aspects of space weather to be progressed beyond today's state-of-the-art. However, in its present setup, it can only be used for space-weather purposes on a campaign basis where a strong emphasis is based on scientific advancements, rather than on its monitoring and forecast-data-products capabilities across much of the Heliophysics domain.

The LOFAR For Space Weather (LOFAR4SW) project is a Horizon 2020 (H2020) INFRADEV design study, started December 2017 (and thus we report on the first year's progress) to undertake investigations into upgrading LOFAR to allow for regular space-weather monitoring observations in parallel with normal radio-astronomy and scientific operations. This involves all aspects of political and scientific engagement with various stakeholders with the full recognition that space weather is a worldwide threat with varied local, regional, continent-wide impacts, and global impacts.

Here, we summarise the key aspects of the LOFAR4SW design study, progress to date (which includes the outputs from the Science and System Definition Workshop), and, crucially, the steps toward the Preliminary Design Review (PDR) in February 2019. We also aim to include some of the longer-term goals envisaged for LOFAR to become one of Europe's most-comprehensive space-weather observatories, shedding new light on several aspects of the space-weather system, from the Sun to the solar wind to the ionosphere.