Recent Results on the Characterization of the LOFAR radiotelescope by means of a micro UAV

The main aim of the UAV-based measurement campaign conducted at a station of the LOw Frequency ARray (LOFAR) in 2016 was to validate the beam models for the LOFAR stations including mutual coupling, i.e., without assuming identical array elements. Such a validation can be performed as a verification of all the embedded-element patterns within both the field-of view and the operative bandwidth. In this paper, the most significant measured results on the low-band elements are reported and discussed.