Speaker
Description
Space Weather research in India started in the middle of nineteenth century with geomagnetic observations leading to earlier records of extreme events in 1870s. India’s oldest Solar observatory established in 1899 rendered innovative science on solar dynamics. Radio sounding of upper atmosphere started in early twentieth century and yielded path-breaking science results on equatorial ionospheric electrodynamics. India’s successful first rocket flight experiment in November 1963 under the leadership of Dr. Vikram Sarabhai, marked the beginning of a new phase, and spearheaded series of rocket experiments carrying a variety of indigenously built instruments, which led to pioneering scientific contributions in aeronomy research. Subsequently, several state-of-the-art optical instruments were conceived and developed for the first time. Coordinated experiments and campaigns with multi-technique radio and optical instruments brought new findings and discoveries in the upper atmospheric phenomena and processes.
Experiments on board rockets eventually led to the satellite-based instrumentation and experiments on board scientific satellites – namely SROSS-C (Stretched Rohini Satellite Series C), SOXS (SOlar X-ray Spectrometer) and YOUTHSAT. Innovative instruments, such as XSM (Solar X-ray Monitor) and SARA (Sub-keV Atom Reflecting Analyse) on board India’s Chandrayaan-1, -2 Lunar missions, provided unprecedented results on evolution of elemental abundances during solar flares and the mini-magnetosphere existing on airless body like the Moon. New insights of ICME-ICME (ICME: Interplanetary Coronal Mass Ejections) interactions, directional isotropy of suprathermal populations in the interplanetary medium during quiet period and periodicities in the SEP/ESP flux variations are some of the results that have come from the ASPEX payload on-board Aditya-L1 mission of India. Studies are conducted to identify impact of CMEs, ICMEs on Mars and Venus, as well as to understand direct impact of solar flares and solar wind on atmospheres and ionospheres of planets.
The proposed dual aeronomy satellite mission DISHA (Disturbed and quiet time Ionosphere- thermosphere System at High Altitudes) is equipped with unique capabilities to investigate space weather impacts on the geo-space. Efforts are also underway to investigate planetary space weather with experiments, like VeRad (Venus Radiation monitor) to study the radiation environment around the Venus in the Venus Orbiter Mission (VOM), as well as solar wind and airglow measurements from the relay orbiter as part of the proposed Mars Landing Mission (MLM). This talk will provide a synoptic perspective on Space Weather research in India highlighting key scientific contributions, novel experiments, and the future prospects.