The Radio Sky on Short Timescales with LOFAR: Pulsars and Fast Transients

Abstract

LOFAR, the "low-frequency array", will be one of the first in a new generation of radio telescopes and Square Kilometer Array (SKA) pathfinders that are highly flexible in capability because they are largely software driven. LOFAR will not only open up a mostly unexplored spectral window, the lowest frequency radio light observable from the Earth's surface, but it will also be an unprecented tool with which to monitor the transient radio sky over a large field of view and down to timescales of milliseconds or less. Here we discuss LOFAR's current and upcoming capabilities for observing fast transients and pulsars, and briefly present recent commissioning observations of known pulsars.