  LOFAR (the Low Frequency Array), a distributed digital radio telescope with
stations in the Netherlands, Germany, France, Sweden, and the United Kingdom,
is designed to enable full-sky monitoring of transient radio sources. These
capabilities are ideal for the detection of broadband radio pulses generated in
cosmic ray air showers. The core of LOFAR consists of 24 stations within 4
square kilometers, and each station contains 96 low-band antennas and 48
high-band antennas. This dense instrumentation will allow detailed studies of
the lateral distribution of the radio signal in a frequency range of 10-250
MHz. Such studies are key to understanding the various radio emission
mechanisms within the air shower, as well as for determining the potential of
the radio technique for primary particle identification. We present the status
of the LOFAR cosmic ray program, including the station design and hardware, the
triggering and filtering schemes, and our initial observations of
cosmic-ray-induced radio pulses.
