During the period from January 22nd – 26th, employees of Ventspils International Radio Astronomy Center (VIRAC) attended a training in Manchester, UK, where they participated in training seminars (Workshop at UMAN 2), organized by the project partner – Radio Astronomy Institute of the University of Manchester “Jodrell Bank Center for Astrophysics” (JBCA).

The subject of the training seminars was automation of data processing and processing of data, acquired by Low-Frequency Antenna Array (LOFAR).

The purpose of this training is to increase the competence of the VIRAC staff in the field of radio astronomical data processing and imaging of the data, acquired by parabolic and LOFAR antenna arrays.

During the training, VIRAC employees attended relevant lectures, practical sessions and shared experience with the specialists of the field.

During the training, VIRAC staff attended the following lectures:

“A Gentle Introduction in Radioastronomy”;

“Introduction to Radio Imaging”;

“Apperture Arrays and LOFAR”;

“LOFAR Prefactor Calibration”;

“VLBI (Very Long Baseline Interferometry) and LOFAR”;

“Dispersive Delay Correction”;

“Jupyter, CASA Notebook”;

“ Radioastronomical image processing programme – PyBDSF”.

During the practical seminars real radio astronomical data calibration and imaging was done as well the analysis of the images that can be seen in the following pictures.