Relazione su invito
The Low-Frequency Array (LOFAR) and the pathway to the SKA.
Brunetti G.
Research in radio astronomy is undergoing a major transformation thanks to the precursors and pathfinders of the Square Kilometer Array (SKA). The pan-European LOFAR array is the world's largest radio telescope to explore the radio sky at long wavelengths and the most important pathfinder of the SKA-low. It is a network of stations, distributed across 10 Countries in Europe, that produces unprecedented data volumes and opens a new observational window of the Universe. LOFAR is driving a revolution in several fields by entering an unexplored region of observational parameters; a relevant example is provided by the first steps towards the detection of radio emission from filaments and the large-scale structure of the Universe. In this talk I will give an overview of LOFAR and of its most important aspects on the way to the SKA. In the second part I will focus on the important results that have been achieved in the field of galaxy clusters and large-scale structures, and on the main challenges that need to be addressed in the near future and in the SKA era.