IRELAND

And it is here, at Birr, that Carley sees the potential not only to develop
his own work, but to establish Ireland as a pioneering player in
astrophysics research.
Led by the likes of Professor Gallagher, there have been on-going efforts
to build a Low Frequency Array (LOFAR) radio telescope at Birr, which is
crucial to examining how solar eruptions produce light-speed particles
and radio bursts. ‘This is state of the art technology’, Carley explains.
‘You’re always remote
in astrophysics –
there are no direct
measurements.’
discovery Ireland 40,41
‘Radio observations are necessary if we want to get at
[!]
the fundamental physics of one of these solar eruptions.’
‘It’s a huge network of European radio telescopes combined together to
observe the sun and the universe using radio waves.’ It is envisaged that
LOFAR will have applications across geophysics, meteorology, and
agriculture, but first and foremost it is crucial to the exploration of sunearth
connections and therefore crucial to the type of fundamental
research in which Carley has clearly excelled. Indeed, it was to gain
experience in radio observations of the sun that he moved to the Paris
Observatory. ‘Radio observations are necessary if we want to get at the
fundamental physics of one of these solar eruptions. France has some of
the foremost solar radio astronomers in the world. My goal is to gain that
knowledge here, and bring it to Ireland. This will hopefully establish
Ireland as being at the forefront of radio astronomy and astrophysics.’