J. Astrophys. Astr. (xxxx) xx, 000–000 LOFAR and APERTIF surveys of the radio sky: probing shocks and magnetic fields in galaxy clusters HuubR¨ottgering 1* ,Jose Afonso 2 ,Peter Barthel 3 , Fabien Batejat 4 ,Philip Best 5 ,Annalisa Bonafede 6 , Marcus Br¨ uggen 6 ,Gianfranco Brunetti 7 ,Krzysztof Chy˙ zy 8 , John Conway 9 ,Francesco De Gasperin 10 ,Chiara Ferrari 11 , Marijke Haverkorn 1,12,17 ,George Heald 12 ,Matthias Hoeft 13 , Neal Jackson 14 ,Matt Jarvis 15 ,Louise Ker 5 , Matt Lehnert 16 ,Giulia Macario 7 ,John McKean 12 , George Miley 1 ,Raffaella Morganti 3,12 ,Tom Oosterloo 3,12 , Emanuela Orr` u 17 ,Roberto Pizzo 12 ,David Rafferty 1 , Alexander Shulevski 3 ,Cyril Tasse 16 ,Ilse van Bemmel 12 , Bas van der Tol 1 ,Reinout van Weeren 1 ,Marc Verheijen 3 , Glenn White 18 , Michael Wise 12 , on behalf of the LOFAR collaboration 1 Leiden Observatory, Leiden University, PO Box 9513, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands 2 Observat´orio Astron´omico de Lisboa, Faculdade de Ciˆ encias, Universidade de Lisboa, Tapada da Ajuda, 1349-018 Lisbon, Portugal 3 Kapteyn Instituut, Landleven 12, 9747 AD Groningen, The Netherlands 4 Chalmers University of Technology, Onsala Space Observatory, SE 439 92 Onsala, Sweden 5 Royal Observatory, Blackford Hill, Edinburgh EH9 3HJ, UK 6 Jacobs University Bremen, Campus Ring 1, 28759 Bremen, Germany 7 INAF, Istituto di Radioastronomia, Via P Gobetti 101, IT 40129, Bologna, Italy 8 Jagiellonian University, ul. Orla 171 30-244 Krak´ow POLAND 9 Chalmers University of Technology, Onsala Space Observatory, SE 439 92 Onsala, Sweden 10 Max-Planck-Institut f¨ ur Astrophysik, Karl-Schwarzschildstraße 1, 85741 Garching, Germany 11 UNS, CNRS UMR 6202 Cassiop´ ee, Observatoire de la Cote d’Azur, Nice, France 12 ASTRON, PO Box 2, 7990 AA Dwingeloo, The Netherlands 13 Th¨ uringer Landessternwarte, Tautenburg 14 Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics, University of Manchester, Turing Building, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK 15 Centre for Astrophysics, University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield, Herts, UK 16 Observatoire de Paris, 5 Place Jules Janssen, 92195 Meudon, France 17 Radboud University Nijmegen, Heijendaalseweg 135, 6525 AJ Nijmegen, The Netherlands 18 Department of Physics and Astronomy, The Open University, Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA, Space Science and Technology Department, STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Chilton, OX11 0QX, UK Received xxx; accepted xxx 1 arXiv:1107.1606v1 [astro-ph.CO] 8 Jul 2011