- Email: [email protected]
COSPAR personalities
IBEX: NASA Small
Explorer
[From NASA News Release, 26 January 2005.] satellite that will make the first map of the boundary between the solar system and interstellar space has been selected as part of NASA's Small Explorer programme. The Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) mission will be launched in 2008. IBEX is the first mission designed to detect the edge of the solar system. As the solar wind from the Sun flows out beyond Pluto, it collides with the material between the stars, forming a shock front. IBEX will carry two neutral atom imagers designed to detect particles from the termination shock at the boundary between the solar system and interstellar space. IBEX will also study galactic cosmic rays, energetic particles from beyond the solar system that pose a health and safety hazard for humans exploring beyond Earth orbit. IBEX will make these observations from a highly elliptical orbit that takes it beyond the region where it could suffer interference from the Earth's magnetosphere. Dr David McComas of Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio will lead IBEX which will cost approximately $134 million. The Small Explorer program (SMEX) comprises rapid, small and focused science exploration missions.
A
of this course in 1962, he was selected by the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai as a Research Associate. He joined the X-ray Astronomy Programme, which was started at TIFR in 1967, and played a leading role in the development of X-ray astronomy instruments and using them for timing and spectral studies of X-ray binaries in the 20-t00 keV band from balloon-borne observations. He was awarded Ph.D. degree of Mumbai University on the thesis 'Studies of Cosmic X-ray Sources using Balloon-borne Detectors' in 1972. Immediately after gaining his Ph.D., he joined Professor Gordon Garmire's X-ray Astronomy group at California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Pasadena, USA as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow and remained there for 3 years. After returning from Caltech in late 1975, he resumed his research at TIFR in hard X-ray astronomy from balloon observations and also initiated the development of a soft X-ray instrument to be flown in rockets for studies of the diffuse soft cosmic X-ray background from 0.1 to 2 keV. In 1978, he joined the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, USA as a NAS-NRC Senior Resident Research Associate (RRA) and studied soft X-ray emission from different type of sources using data from LEDs of the HEAO-A2 experiment. He was a Visiting Professor in the Institute of Space and Astronautical Sciences (ISAS), Japan from
COSPAR Personalities P r a h l a d C. A g r a w a l - Chair: Panel on Technical Problems Scientific Ballooning
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to
p
rahlad C. Agrawal was born on 15 April 1941 in Ratlam, India. After graduating from Vikram University, Ujjain in Science in 1961, he joined the BARC Training School for its Post-graduation Training Course in Physics.Following the successful completion
37
May to July 1984. In 1987-88, he worked with the X-ray Astronomy group at Marshall Space Flight Centre (MSFC), Huntsville, USA as a NAS-NRC Senior RRA and collaborated in the development and characterization of gas-filled detectors for X-ray astronomy studies. He was a Visiting Professor at the Institute of Physical and Chemcial Research (RIKEN), Japan under RIKEN's Eminent Scientists Invitation Programme from August to December 1997.
he discovered several new soft X-ray sources including the now well known AM Her binary H 0139-68 (BL Hyi), the BL Lac source H 2155-304 and several RSCVn binaries. He subsequently carried out follow-up imaging and spectroscopic observations of many of these sources with the Einstein X-ray Observatory. He made important contributions to the study of coronal X-ray sources, the most notable result being the detection of a close correlation between the X-ray luminosity and bolometric luminosity of dMe type stars. Discovery of rotational modulation of the Xray flux from RSCVn binary HR1099 is one of the important results of his studies.
Prahlad Agrawal started his scientific career as a cosmic ray researcher and participated in several balloon-borne experiments to measure the fluxes of protons and helium nuclei in primary cosmic rays. He was instrumental in the development of spark chambers for cosmic ray studies at TIFR and, subsequently, developed a cosmic ray telescope comprising a large area scintillationCerenkov counter-spark chamber for measuring the charge composition of heavy nuclei in primary cosmic rays. Since 1967, his primary research interest has been in the study of cosmic X-ray sources using balloon-, rocket- and satellite-borne instruments. He participated in a large number of balloon-borne experiments between 1967 and 1992 and studied time variability and energy spectra of several bright X-ray sources. Along with his colleagues, he reported the first detection of a hard X-ray flare in Cyg X-1 as well as its rapid erratic variability over the time-scale of minutes from balloon experiments Similarly, the detection of hard X-rays with energy >30 keV, representing a non-thermal component in the spectrum of the bright X-ray source Sco X1, was reported from balloon experiments carried out at TIFR. At Caltech, he made important contributions, along with Professor Garmire and Dr Riegler, to the development of highly successful low energy detectors (LEDs) for the HEAO-A2 experiment. This experiment was launched in 1977 aboard HEAO-1 and a sensitive soft X-ray survey of the sky in the 0.1-3 keV band was carried out using the LEDs as well as an investigation of temporal and spectral characteristics of soft X-ray emissions from a large number of discrete sources. In close association with Dr Riegler (then at JPL),
In the mid-1980s, Agrawal and his group developed a new hard X-ray telescope using large-area xenon-filled detectors for studies of X-ray pulsars and other binary X-ray sources. This instrument was used successfully in more than a dozen balloon experiments yielding interesting new results on X-ray pulsations, energy spectra and variability of GX 1+4, 4U 1907+09, Cyg X-1 among other sources. In the early 1990s, he made a proposal for an Indian X-ray Astronomy Experiment (IXAE) to be flown aboard an Indian satellite. This proposal was approved and the IXAE was designed and fabricated by a team that he led in a record period of less than 2 years. The IXAE consisted of three identical co-aligned proportional counters with a field of view of 2 degree x 2 degree and an effective area of 1200 cm2. This instrument was principally aimed at timing studies of X-ray binary sources. The IXAE was launched aboard the Indian IRS-P3 Satellite using Indian PSLV rocket on 21 March 1996 from the SHAR range in India in a 830 km circular polar orbit. Even in such an unfavourable orbit, the instrument was operated successfully in -20 ° to +50 ° latitude range for about 2 months every year. The instrument functioned well for five years until it was shut down due to the lack of fuel for controlling pointing operations. During this period, about two dozen X-ray binaries were observed and several new and significant
38
results on rapid variability, pulsations and quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs) were obtained. One of the important results from IXAE was the detection of rapid QPOs with about 40 second period having slow rise and fast decay times from microquasar GRS 1915+105. These were interpreted as arising due to disappearance of matter, ejected from the accretion disc, behind the event horizon of the black hole source in GRS 1915+105. Corelated X-ray and radio outbursts in GRS 1915+105 and the formation of a transient accretion disc in the slow X-ray pulsar 4U1907+09 as indicated by the appearance of transient pulsations were other important results from IXAE.
To date, Prahlad Agrawal has published 114 papers in refereed journals and more than 60 papers in the proceedings of national and international conferences. He has edited (with P. Vishwanath) the proceedings of the 'High Energy Astronomy and Astrophysics Symposium', held in 1996 at TIFR, Mumbai, as well as (with J. Teuller) the proceedings of the Symposium on 'Scientific Ballooning in the Next Century: Goals and Challenges' held at the COSPAR Assembly in 2000 in Warsaw. He has contributed two chapters to a book Astrophysics: A Modern Perspective. He is a life member of Astronomical Society of India (ASI) and of the Indian Physics Association (IPA). He is also a member of International Astronomical Union (IAU). He was a member of the board of editors of Journals of Astrophysics and Astronomy (JAA) from 1992 to 2002. He has also been a member since 1988 of the Editorial Board of Astrophysics Letters and Communications. He was elected a Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences in 1989, and was awarded the Hari Om Aashram Vikram Sarabai Award in 1984 for achievements in Space Science as well as the Astronautical Society of India award for Space Sciences in 1997. He was conferred M.P. Birla Memorial award for achievements in Astronomy for the year 2003.
Since 2000, Dr Agrawal has been the PI of the first fully-fledged Indian Astronomy Satellite Astrosat. This satellite has been designed for multi-wavelength studies of different types of cosmic sources over a wide spectral region covering optical, UV, soft Xray and hard X-ray bands. This will be achieved by three co-aligned X-ray astronomy instruments and one UV imaging instrument. The Large Area X-ray Proportional Counter (LAXPC) instrument, being developed by a team led by Agrawal, consists of three identical detectors with a total effective area of 6000 cm 2 and is the principal X-ray astronomy instrument for high time resolution studies of X-ray sources. This instrument will have the largest effective area ever flown to examine the 20-80 keV hard X-ray band. A cadmium-zinctelluride (CZT) array, equipped with a coded mask aperture, will provide hard X-ray imaging and moderate resolution X-ray spectroscopy in hard X-ray band. The third Xray instrument is the soft X-ray imaging telescope (SXT) based on use of conical foilbased X-ray reflecting mirrors and a CCD Xray detector at its focal plane. The SXT will be used for imaging and spectral studies. An Xray Sky Monitor is also included in the Astrosat payload for monitoring the intensity of sources. The development of the instruments is in an advanced state and the satellite is planned to be launched in late 2007 in a near equatorial circular orbit of 650 km.
Agrawal has been a member of the academic staff of TIFR since 1962 and a member of its Faculty since 1983. At present, he holds the post of Senior Professor in the Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics (DAA); he served as its Chairman from 1998 to 2000 and also served as the Director of the National Centre for Radio Astrophysics (NCRA) of TIFR at Pune between 1999 and 2000. He chaired the TIFR Balloon Facility Management Board during the 1998-2001 period. He has been Chairman of the COSPAR Panel on Technical Problems related to Scientific Ballooning since 1998.
39
Robert
W.
Schunk
-
with colleagues, he has developed timedependent, high-resolution models of the global ionosphere, plasmasphere, polar wind, thermosphere, exosphere, and of magnetosphere-ionosphere electrodynamic coupling. These models have been used to trace the flow of mass, momentum and energy through the magnetosphere-ionosphere-atmosphere system taking into account the couplings, time delays and feedback mechanisms that are characteristic of the system. Schunk has also studied processes in the solar wind, on Venus, Jupiter and comets, as well as basic plasma physics phenomena such as plasma transport, contact potentials, electron-beam plasma interactions, shocks, and nonlinear wave-particle and wavewave coupling. In addition, he has published numerous papers comparing model predictions with measurements, using data from several coherent and incoherent scatter radars, ionosondes, rockets, satellites, and the space shuttle.
Chair:
Scientific Commission C on Space Studies of the Upper Atmospheres of the Earth and Planets, including Reference Atmospheres
In addition to studying space physics phenomena, Schunk has been involved in the development of numerical models that describe active experiments and spacecraft-environment interaction problems. A three-dimensional fluid model and a 2.5-dimensional particle-incell (PIC) code were developed to study the expansion characteristics of artificial plasma and neutral clouds injected into the ionosphere via rockets or the space shuttle. The 3-D fluid model accounted rigorously for the large parallel-to-perpendicular ionospheric conductivity difference as well as the coupling of the F-region cloud to the E region and topside ionosphere. Both models were also used to study the interaction of a high-voltage sphere with the low-Earth-orbit plasma environment. This research was done in support of rocket, laboratory, and space shuttle (the electrodynamic tether) experiments. The goal of the work was to elucidate the current collection characteristics of high voltage (10000-50000 volt) elements exposed to the ionospheric plasma. In addition, the PIC code was used to study the interaction of solar cell arrays with the ionospheric plasma.
obert W. Schunk was born on 4 July 1943 in New York City, USA. He received his B.S. degree in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering from New York University in 1965 and his Ph.D. in Physics of Fluids and Plasmas from Yale University in 1970; his Ph.D. dissertation advisor was J. C. G. Walker. After receiving his Ph.D., Schunk spent six years as a postdoctoral fellow or research scientist: one year at the University of Michigan with P. B. Hays and A. F. Nagy, two years back at Yale with J. C. G. Walker and then three years at the University of Califomia, San Diego with P. M. Banks. In 1976, Schunk accepted a faculty position at Utah State University, where he is currently a Professor of Physics and the Director of the Center for Atmospheric and Space Sciences.
R
Schunk's research involves theory, numerical modelling and data analysis. In his early work, he derived fundamental transport equations for gases and plasmas, and constructed numerical models of the ionosphere and polar wind. During his career, and working
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In 1999, Robert Schunk began work on a Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative programme called the 'Global Assimilation of Ionospheric Measurements' (GAIM). The goal of this 5-year programme was to develop a physics-based data assimilation model of the global ionosphere that is similar to those developed for meteorology and oceanography. The most sophisticated GAIM model developed uses a physics-based ionosphere-plasmasphere-polar wind model and a Kalman filter as a basis for assimilating a diverse set of real-time (or near real-time) measurements. The global model extends from 90 to 20000 km in altitude and can assimilate in situ electron densities from several satellites, bottomside electron density profiles from a world-wide network of ionosondes, occultation data from several satellites, slant Total Electron Content (TEC) measurements from a global network of more than 1000 groundbased GPS receivers, and ultraviolet line-ofsight emissions measured by satellites. Recently, one of the GAIM models has been selected as the official ionospheric weather model by the US Air Force and NOAA.
Geophysical Union, serving as a member of the Subcommittee on Electronic Transmission and Publishing of Geophysical Science (19831984), the Awards Committee (1990-1992), the SPA Executive Committee (1998-2000), and the Chair of the SPA Fellows Committee (1998-2000). With regard to international service, Robert Schunk was Associate Editor of the Journal of Geophysical Research (1977-1980), a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of both Planetary and Space Science (1985-1992) and the Journal of Atmospheric and SolarTerrestrial Physics (1991 -present), co-editor of an AGARD/NATO Conference Proceedings (1988), and editor of the STEP Handbook of Ionospheric Models (1996). He was cochairman of a NATO Symposium on Ionospheric Structure and Variability on a Global Scale (1988), a member of SCOSTEP's Programme Committee for the Quadrennial Symposium on Solar-Terrestrial Physics (1988-1990), and a member of the STEP Informatics Project dealing with the Directory of Solar-Terrestrial Models (1993). Schunk was Vice-Chair of Division II of the International Association of Geomagnetism and Aeronomy (IAGA) from 1999-2003 and is currently Chair of Division II (on Aeronomic Phenomena). He was a member of COSPAR's Sub-Commission C.1 (1988-1996), a ViceChair of Commission C (1996-2004), and is currently the Chair of Commission C.
Robert Schunk has served on numerous US panels and committees that involve advisory, review or editorial activities. He has served four 3-year terms on National Academy of Sciences committees, including the Committee on Solar-Terrestrial Research (1979-1982; 1984-1987), the Committee on Geophysical Data (1982-1985), and the Committee on Solar and Space Physics (20002004). He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences' Committee for the Decadal Survey for Solar and Space Physics (2000-2003) and of the Panel on Theory, Modeling, and Data Exploration (2000-2003). He served on the National Science Foundation's Subcommittee for Upper Atmospheric Facilities (1983-1985), an NSF ad hoc Panel on the National Space Weather Program (1995), the NASA Strategy Implementation Study (1989-1990), and the NASA LivingWith-a-Star (LWS) Geospace Missions Definition Team (2000-2003). Schunk has been an active member of the American
Schunk's research has been supported by numerous government grants during the last 30 years. He received his first government grant in 1973 from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and he has maintained this NSF funding ever since. He has been a Principal Investigator (PI) of a NASA Theory Program since its beginning in 1980, which is NASA's pre-eminent programme for theory and modelling in the space sciences. In 1986, Robert Schunk was selected as PI of a six-year programme to create a Center of Excellence in Theory and Analysis of the Geoplasma Environment. In 1999, he became the PI of a five-year Multidisciplinary University
41
Research Initiative (MURI) programme to develop a data assimilation model for the Earth's ionosphere.
(NICT), Tokyo. He is an invited senior researcher of JAXA, the Japanese Space Agency.
Dr Schunk has been the author or coauthor of more than 330 scientific papers, has given or contributed to more than 500 presentations at national and international scientific meetings, and has edited two books. He was also the co-author, with A. F. Nagy, of a book entitled Ionospheres. His work has been recognized with several distinctions. He received the D. Wynne Thorne Research Award in 1983, which is Utah State University's highest research honour, and he was selected to present the 73 rd Faculty Honor Lecture in the Sciences in 1986. In 1988, he received the Governor's Medal for Science and Technology from the State of Utah. Robert Schunk was elected a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union in 1997 and, in 2002, he was selected to present the AGU's Nicolet Lecture.
Takahiro Obara gained a B.Sc in the Faculty of Science of Tohoku University, Sendai, in 1980. Subsequently, at the Geophysical Institute of the same university, he obtained M.Sc and Ph.D degrees in 1982 and 1985, respectively. He became a Research Associate of ISAS in 1986, chief of the CRL Solar-Terrestrial Physics Section in 1997 and, from 2002, Group Leader of the Space Simulator Group. He received the Takanadate Award for studies of polar cap aurora and radiation belt electrons using the Akebono satellite, in 2004. Dr Obara became Vice-Chair of the COSPAR Panel on Space Weather in 2003. In addition, he is leader of the CAWSES Working Group on Radiation Belt Climatology.
P a s c a l W i l l i s - Vice-Chair: Panel on Takahiro Obaraon Space Weather
Vice-Chair: Panel
Satellite Dynamics
ince 2001, Pascal Willis has been a longterm research visitor at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Caltech, USA. Pascal Willis was born in France on 7 January 1960 where he graduated from the Ecole Polytechnique de Paris in 1980. He began his
S
r Takahiro Obara is Group Leader of Ithe Space Simulator Group of the Applied Research and Standards Department of the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology
D
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career at the Institut Geographique National, France in 1983, and is still a member of staff at the Institut. He received a Ph.D. in GPS geodetic applications at the Paris Observatory in 1989 and an Habilitation diploma on DORIS geodetic positioning at University Paris VI in 2003. Dr Willis's primary areas of research are in satellite geodesy (GPS, GLONASS and DONS) as well as in precise orbit determination of altimetry missions. He has been much involved in the International Association of Geodesy for which he has been Assistant Secretary General (1995-1999), Vice-President of Commission 4 (Positioning and Applications), and Editor of the Journal of Geodesy (1996-2003), as well as a member of several of its Working Groups.
and President of the Council of the European Space Agency (ESA) from 1981 to 1984. He became Minister of Research and Technology from 1984 to 1986 and then Minister of Research and Space from 1988 to 1993. Hubert Curien also undertook many other prestigious functions: founder of the European Science Foundation (ESF) and its President from 1979 to 1984, President of the Council of the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) from 1994 to 1996, President of the Fondation de France from 1998 to 2000 and President of the French Academy of Sciences from 2001 to 2003. In 1992, Hubert Curien was awarded the COSPAR International Cooperation Medal for his significant contributions to the promotion of international scientific cooperation.
In France, he was the chairman of a Commission for CNIG (National Council for Geographic Information) on Static and Kinematic Positioning, for about 10 years, and the Secretary of the Board of longitudes between 2000 and 2001. He has been one of the ViceChairs of the COSPAR Technical Panel on Satellite Dynamics since 2004.
In Memoriam - Hubert Curien (1924-2005) A Leading European Space Advocate ubert Curien was born on 30 October 1924 in Cornimont (France). After studies at the Ecole Normale Suprrieure, he started a university career as professor at the Faculty of Sciences of Paris and specialized in crystallography. Eminent as a crystallographer, he discovered a new crystalline form of gallium. In parallel to his teaching activities, he also occupied several key positions of responsibility in the fields of research and technology: Director General of CNRS in 1973, General Delegate to Scientific and Technical Research (DGRST) from 1973 to 1976, President of the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES) from 1976 to 1984
H
Personal recollections of an outstanding humanist (by Professor R-M. Bonnet, COSPAR President). The world of space research has lost one of its best advocates, actors and admirers. On 6 February 2005, Herbert Curien passed away at the age of 80, a landmark he had reached only a few months earlier. Since 1976, he had been deeply involved in space matters - first as President of CNES and then simultaneously as President of ESA between 1981 and 1984. He was later French Minister of Research and Technology (responsible for space) on two occasions: first
43
Explorer
[From NASA News Release, 26 January 2005.] satellite that will make the first map of the boundary between the solar system and interstellar space has been selected as part of NASA's Small Explorer programme. The Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) mission will be launched in 2008. IBEX is the first mission designed to detect the edge of the solar system. As the solar wind from the Sun flows out beyond Pluto, it collides with the material between the stars, forming a shock front. IBEX will carry two neutral atom imagers designed to detect particles from the termination shock at the boundary between the solar system and interstellar space. IBEX will also study galactic cosmic rays, energetic particles from beyond the solar system that pose a health and safety hazard for humans exploring beyond Earth orbit. IBEX will make these observations from a highly elliptical orbit that takes it beyond the region where it could suffer interference from the Earth's magnetosphere. Dr David McComas of Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio will lead IBEX which will cost approximately $134 million. The Small Explorer program (SMEX) comprises rapid, small and focused science exploration missions.
A
of this course in 1962, he was selected by the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai as a Research Associate. He joined the X-ray Astronomy Programme, which was started at TIFR in 1967, and played a leading role in the development of X-ray astronomy instruments and using them for timing and spectral studies of X-ray binaries in the 20-t00 keV band from balloon-borne observations. He was awarded Ph.D. degree of Mumbai University on the thesis 'Studies of Cosmic X-ray Sources using Balloon-borne Detectors' in 1972. Immediately after gaining his Ph.D., he joined Professor Gordon Garmire's X-ray Astronomy group at California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Pasadena, USA as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow and remained there for 3 years. After returning from Caltech in late 1975, he resumed his research at TIFR in hard X-ray astronomy from balloon observations and also initiated the development of a soft X-ray instrument to be flown in rockets for studies of the diffuse soft cosmic X-ray background from 0.1 to 2 keV. In 1978, he joined the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, USA as a NAS-NRC Senior Resident Research Associate (RRA) and studied soft X-ray emission from different type of sources using data from LEDs of the HEAO-A2 experiment. He was a Visiting Professor in the Institute of Space and Astronautical Sciences (ISAS), Japan from
COSPAR Personalities P r a h l a d C. A g r a w a l - Chair: Panel on Technical Problems Scientific Ballooning
Related
to
p
rahlad C. Agrawal was born on 15 April 1941 in Ratlam, India. After graduating from Vikram University, Ujjain in Science in 1961, he joined the BARC Training School for its Post-graduation Training Course in Physics.Following the successful completion
37
May to July 1984. In 1987-88, he worked with the X-ray Astronomy group at Marshall Space Flight Centre (MSFC), Huntsville, USA as a NAS-NRC Senior RRA and collaborated in the development and characterization of gas-filled detectors for X-ray astronomy studies. He was a Visiting Professor at the Institute of Physical and Chemcial Research (RIKEN), Japan under RIKEN's Eminent Scientists Invitation Programme from August to December 1997.
he discovered several new soft X-ray sources including the now well known AM Her binary H 0139-68 (BL Hyi), the BL Lac source H 2155-304 and several RSCVn binaries. He subsequently carried out follow-up imaging and spectroscopic observations of many of these sources with the Einstein X-ray Observatory. He made important contributions to the study of coronal X-ray sources, the most notable result being the detection of a close correlation between the X-ray luminosity and bolometric luminosity of dMe type stars. Discovery of rotational modulation of the Xray flux from RSCVn binary HR1099 is one of the important results of his studies.
Prahlad Agrawal started his scientific career as a cosmic ray researcher and participated in several balloon-borne experiments to measure the fluxes of protons and helium nuclei in primary cosmic rays. He was instrumental in the development of spark chambers for cosmic ray studies at TIFR and, subsequently, developed a cosmic ray telescope comprising a large area scintillationCerenkov counter-spark chamber for measuring the charge composition of heavy nuclei in primary cosmic rays. Since 1967, his primary research interest has been in the study of cosmic X-ray sources using balloon-, rocket- and satellite-borne instruments. He participated in a large number of balloon-borne experiments between 1967 and 1992 and studied time variability and energy spectra of several bright X-ray sources. Along with his colleagues, he reported the first detection of a hard X-ray flare in Cyg X-1 as well as its rapid erratic variability over the time-scale of minutes from balloon experiments Similarly, the detection of hard X-rays with energy >30 keV, representing a non-thermal component in the spectrum of the bright X-ray source Sco X1, was reported from balloon experiments carried out at TIFR. At Caltech, he made important contributions, along with Professor Garmire and Dr Riegler, to the development of highly successful low energy detectors (LEDs) for the HEAO-A2 experiment. This experiment was launched in 1977 aboard HEAO-1 and a sensitive soft X-ray survey of the sky in the 0.1-3 keV band was carried out using the LEDs as well as an investigation of temporal and spectral characteristics of soft X-ray emissions from a large number of discrete sources. In close association with Dr Riegler (then at JPL),
In the mid-1980s, Agrawal and his group developed a new hard X-ray telescope using large-area xenon-filled detectors for studies of X-ray pulsars and other binary X-ray sources. This instrument was used successfully in more than a dozen balloon experiments yielding interesting new results on X-ray pulsations, energy spectra and variability of GX 1+4, 4U 1907+09, Cyg X-1 among other sources. In the early 1990s, he made a proposal for an Indian X-ray Astronomy Experiment (IXAE) to be flown aboard an Indian satellite. This proposal was approved and the IXAE was designed and fabricated by a team that he led in a record period of less than 2 years. The IXAE consisted of three identical co-aligned proportional counters with a field of view of 2 degree x 2 degree and an effective area of 1200 cm2. This instrument was principally aimed at timing studies of X-ray binary sources. The IXAE was launched aboard the Indian IRS-P3 Satellite using Indian PSLV rocket on 21 March 1996 from the SHAR range in India in a 830 km circular polar orbit. Even in such an unfavourable orbit, the instrument was operated successfully in -20 ° to +50 ° latitude range for about 2 months every year. The instrument functioned well for five years until it was shut down due to the lack of fuel for controlling pointing operations. During this period, about two dozen X-ray binaries were observed and several new and significant
38
results on rapid variability, pulsations and quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs) were obtained. One of the important results from IXAE was the detection of rapid QPOs with about 40 second period having slow rise and fast decay times from microquasar GRS 1915+105. These were interpreted as arising due to disappearance of matter, ejected from the accretion disc, behind the event horizon of the black hole source in GRS 1915+105. Corelated X-ray and radio outbursts in GRS 1915+105 and the formation of a transient accretion disc in the slow X-ray pulsar 4U1907+09 as indicated by the appearance of transient pulsations were other important results from IXAE.
To date, Prahlad Agrawal has published 114 papers in refereed journals and more than 60 papers in the proceedings of national and international conferences. He has edited (with P. Vishwanath) the proceedings of the 'High Energy Astronomy and Astrophysics Symposium', held in 1996 at TIFR, Mumbai, as well as (with J. Teuller) the proceedings of the Symposium on 'Scientific Ballooning in the Next Century: Goals and Challenges' held at the COSPAR Assembly in 2000 in Warsaw. He has contributed two chapters to a book Astrophysics: A Modern Perspective. He is a life member of Astronomical Society of India (ASI) and of the Indian Physics Association (IPA). He is also a member of International Astronomical Union (IAU). He was a member of the board of editors of Journals of Astrophysics and Astronomy (JAA) from 1992 to 2002. He has also been a member since 1988 of the Editorial Board of Astrophysics Letters and Communications. He was elected a Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences in 1989, and was awarded the Hari Om Aashram Vikram Sarabai Award in 1984 for achievements in Space Science as well as the Astronautical Society of India award for Space Sciences in 1997. He was conferred M.P. Birla Memorial award for achievements in Astronomy for the year 2003.
Since 2000, Dr Agrawal has been the PI of the first fully-fledged Indian Astronomy Satellite Astrosat. This satellite has been designed for multi-wavelength studies of different types of cosmic sources over a wide spectral region covering optical, UV, soft Xray and hard X-ray bands. This will be achieved by three co-aligned X-ray astronomy instruments and one UV imaging instrument. The Large Area X-ray Proportional Counter (LAXPC) instrument, being developed by a team led by Agrawal, consists of three identical detectors with a total effective area of 6000 cm 2 and is the principal X-ray astronomy instrument for high time resolution studies of X-ray sources. This instrument will have the largest effective area ever flown to examine the 20-80 keV hard X-ray band. A cadmium-zinctelluride (CZT) array, equipped with a coded mask aperture, will provide hard X-ray imaging and moderate resolution X-ray spectroscopy in hard X-ray band. The third Xray instrument is the soft X-ray imaging telescope (SXT) based on use of conical foilbased X-ray reflecting mirrors and a CCD Xray detector at its focal plane. The SXT will be used for imaging and spectral studies. An Xray Sky Monitor is also included in the Astrosat payload for monitoring the intensity of sources. The development of the instruments is in an advanced state and the satellite is planned to be launched in late 2007 in a near equatorial circular orbit of 650 km.
Agrawal has been a member of the academic staff of TIFR since 1962 and a member of its Faculty since 1983. At present, he holds the post of Senior Professor in the Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics (DAA); he served as its Chairman from 1998 to 2000 and also served as the Director of the National Centre for Radio Astrophysics (NCRA) of TIFR at Pune between 1999 and 2000. He chaired the TIFR Balloon Facility Management Board during the 1998-2001 period. He has been Chairman of the COSPAR Panel on Technical Problems related to Scientific Ballooning since 1998.
39
Robert
W.
Schunk
-
with colleagues, he has developed timedependent, high-resolution models of the global ionosphere, plasmasphere, polar wind, thermosphere, exosphere, and of magnetosphere-ionosphere electrodynamic coupling. These models have been used to trace the flow of mass, momentum and energy through the magnetosphere-ionosphere-atmosphere system taking into account the couplings, time delays and feedback mechanisms that are characteristic of the system. Schunk has also studied processes in the solar wind, on Venus, Jupiter and comets, as well as basic plasma physics phenomena such as plasma transport, contact potentials, electron-beam plasma interactions, shocks, and nonlinear wave-particle and wavewave coupling. In addition, he has published numerous papers comparing model predictions with measurements, using data from several coherent and incoherent scatter radars, ionosondes, rockets, satellites, and the space shuttle.
Chair:
Scientific Commission C on Space Studies of the Upper Atmospheres of the Earth and Planets, including Reference Atmospheres
In addition to studying space physics phenomena, Schunk has been involved in the development of numerical models that describe active experiments and spacecraft-environment interaction problems. A three-dimensional fluid model and a 2.5-dimensional particle-incell (PIC) code were developed to study the expansion characteristics of artificial plasma and neutral clouds injected into the ionosphere via rockets or the space shuttle. The 3-D fluid model accounted rigorously for the large parallel-to-perpendicular ionospheric conductivity difference as well as the coupling of the F-region cloud to the E region and topside ionosphere. Both models were also used to study the interaction of a high-voltage sphere with the low-Earth-orbit plasma environment. This research was done in support of rocket, laboratory, and space shuttle (the electrodynamic tether) experiments. The goal of the work was to elucidate the current collection characteristics of high voltage (10000-50000 volt) elements exposed to the ionospheric plasma. In addition, the PIC code was used to study the interaction of solar cell arrays with the ionospheric plasma.
obert W. Schunk was born on 4 July 1943 in New York City, USA. He received his B.S. degree in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering from New York University in 1965 and his Ph.D. in Physics of Fluids and Plasmas from Yale University in 1970; his Ph.D. dissertation advisor was J. C. G. Walker. After receiving his Ph.D., Schunk spent six years as a postdoctoral fellow or research scientist: one year at the University of Michigan with P. B. Hays and A. F. Nagy, two years back at Yale with J. C. G. Walker and then three years at the University of Califomia, San Diego with P. M. Banks. In 1976, Schunk accepted a faculty position at Utah State University, where he is currently a Professor of Physics and the Director of the Center for Atmospheric and Space Sciences.
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Schunk's research involves theory, numerical modelling and data analysis. In his early work, he derived fundamental transport equations for gases and plasmas, and constructed numerical models of the ionosphere and polar wind. During his career, and working
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In 1999, Robert Schunk began work on a Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative programme called the 'Global Assimilation of Ionospheric Measurements' (GAIM). The goal of this 5-year programme was to develop a physics-based data assimilation model of the global ionosphere that is similar to those developed for meteorology and oceanography. The most sophisticated GAIM model developed uses a physics-based ionosphere-plasmasphere-polar wind model and a Kalman filter as a basis for assimilating a diverse set of real-time (or near real-time) measurements. The global model extends from 90 to 20000 km in altitude and can assimilate in situ electron densities from several satellites, bottomside electron density profiles from a world-wide network of ionosondes, occultation data from several satellites, slant Total Electron Content (TEC) measurements from a global network of more than 1000 groundbased GPS receivers, and ultraviolet line-ofsight emissions measured by satellites. Recently, one of the GAIM models has been selected as the official ionospheric weather model by the US Air Force and NOAA.
Geophysical Union, serving as a member of the Subcommittee on Electronic Transmission and Publishing of Geophysical Science (19831984), the Awards Committee (1990-1992), the SPA Executive Committee (1998-2000), and the Chair of the SPA Fellows Committee (1998-2000). With regard to international service, Robert Schunk was Associate Editor of the Journal of Geophysical Research (1977-1980), a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of both Planetary and Space Science (1985-1992) and the Journal of Atmospheric and SolarTerrestrial Physics (1991 -present), co-editor of an AGARD/NATO Conference Proceedings (1988), and editor of the STEP Handbook of Ionospheric Models (1996). He was cochairman of a NATO Symposium on Ionospheric Structure and Variability on a Global Scale (1988), a member of SCOSTEP's Programme Committee for the Quadrennial Symposium on Solar-Terrestrial Physics (1988-1990), and a member of the STEP Informatics Project dealing with the Directory of Solar-Terrestrial Models (1993). Schunk was Vice-Chair of Division II of the International Association of Geomagnetism and Aeronomy (IAGA) from 1999-2003 and is currently Chair of Division II (on Aeronomic Phenomena). He was a member of COSPAR's Sub-Commission C.1 (1988-1996), a ViceChair of Commission C (1996-2004), and is currently the Chair of Commission C.
Robert Schunk has served on numerous US panels and committees that involve advisory, review or editorial activities. He has served four 3-year terms on National Academy of Sciences committees, including the Committee on Solar-Terrestrial Research (1979-1982; 1984-1987), the Committee on Geophysical Data (1982-1985), and the Committee on Solar and Space Physics (20002004). He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences' Committee for the Decadal Survey for Solar and Space Physics (2000-2003) and of the Panel on Theory, Modeling, and Data Exploration (2000-2003). He served on the National Science Foundation's Subcommittee for Upper Atmospheric Facilities (1983-1985), an NSF ad hoc Panel on the National Space Weather Program (1995), the NASA Strategy Implementation Study (1989-1990), and the NASA LivingWith-a-Star (LWS) Geospace Missions Definition Team (2000-2003). Schunk has been an active member of the American
Schunk's research has been supported by numerous government grants during the last 30 years. He received his first government grant in 1973 from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and he has maintained this NSF funding ever since. He has been a Principal Investigator (PI) of a NASA Theory Program since its beginning in 1980, which is NASA's pre-eminent programme for theory and modelling in the space sciences. In 1986, Robert Schunk was selected as PI of a six-year programme to create a Center of Excellence in Theory and Analysis of the Geoplasma Environment. In 1999, he became the PI of a five-year Multidisciplinary University
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Research Initiative (MURI) programme to develop a data assimilation model for the Earth's ionosphere.
(NICT), Tokyo. He is an invited senior researcher of JAXA, the Japanese Space Agency.
Dr Schunk has been the author or coauthor of more than 330 scientific papers, has given or contributed to more than 500 presentations at national and international scientific meetings, and has edited two books. He was also the co-author, with A. F. Nagy, of a book entitled Ionospheres. His work has been recognized with several distinctions. He received the D. Wynne Thorne Research Award in 1983, which is Utah State University's highest research honour, and he was selected to present the 73 rd Faculty Honor Lecture in the Sciences in 1986. In 1988, he received the Governor's Medal for Science and Technology from the State of Utah. Robert Schunk was elected a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union in 1997 and, in 2002, he was selected to present the AGU's Nicolet Lecture.
Takahiro Obara gained a B.Sc in the Faculty of Science of Tohoku University, Sendai, in 1980. Subsequently, at the Geophysical Institute of the same university, he obtained M.Sc and Ph.D degrees in 1982 and 1985, respectively. He became a Research Associate of ISAS in 1986, chief of the CRL Solar-Terrestrial Physics Section in 1997 and, from 2002, Group Leader of the Space Simulator Group. He received the Takanadate Award for studies of polar cap aurora and radiation belt electrons using the Akebono satellite, in 2004. Dr Obara became Vice-Chair of the COSPAR Panel on Space Weather in 2003. In addition, he is leader of the CAWSES Working Group on Radiation Belt Climatology.
P a s c a l W i l l i s - Vice-Chair: Panel on Takahiro Obaraon Space Weather
Vice-Chair: Panel
Satellite Dynamics
ince 2001, Pascal Willis has been a longterm research visitor at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Caltech, USA. Pascal Willis was born in France on 7 January 1960 where he graduated from the Ecole Polytechnique de Paris in 1980. He began his
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r Takahiro Obara is Group Leader of Ithe Space Simulator Group of the Applied Research and Standards Department of the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology
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career at the Institut Geographique National, France in 1983, and is still a member of staff at the Institut. He received a Ph.D. in GPS geodetic applications at the Paris Observatory in 1989 and an Habilitation diploma on DORIS geodetic positioning at University Paris VI in 2003. Dr Willis's primary areas of research are in satellite geodesy (GPS, GLONASS and DONS) as well as in precise orbit determination of altimetry missions. He has been much involved in the International Association of Geodesy for which he has been Assistant Secretary General (1995-1999), Vice-President of Commission 4 (Positioning and Applications), and Editor of the Journal of Geodesy (1996-2003), as well as a member of several of its Working Groups.
and President of the Council of the European Space Agency (ESA) from 1981 to 1984. He became Minister of Research and Technology from 1984 to 1986 and then Minister of Research and Space from 1988 to 1993. Hubert Curien also undertook many other prestigious functions: founder of the European Science Foundation (ESF) and its President from 1979 to 1984, President of the Council of the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) from 1994 to 1996, President of the Fondation de France from 1998 to 2000 and President of the French Academy of Sciences from 2001 to 2003. In 1992, Hubert Curien was awarded the COSPAR International Cooperation Medal for his significant contributions to the promotion of international scientific cooperation.
In France, he was the chairman of a Commission for CNIG (National Council for Geographic Information) on Static and Kinematic Positioning, for about 10 years, and the Secretary of the Board of longitudes between 2000 and 2001. He has been one of the ViceChairs of the COSPAR Technical Panel on Satellite Dynamics since 2004.
In Memoriam - Hubert Curien (1924-2005) A Leading European Space Advocate ubert Curien was born on 30 October 1924 in Cornimont (France). After studies at the Ecole Normale Suprrieure, he started a university career as professor at the Faculty of Sciences of Paris and specialized in crystallography. Eminent as a crystallographer, he discovered a new crystalline form of gallium. In parallel to his teaching activities, he also occupied several key positions of responsibility in the fields of research and technology: Director General of CNRS in 1973, General Delegate to Scientific and Technical Research (DGRST) from 1973 to 1976, President of the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES) from 1976 to 1984
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Personal recollections of an outstanding humanist (by Professor R-M. Bonnet, COSPAR President). The world of space research has lost one of its best advocates, actors and admirers. On 6 February 2005, Herbert Curien passed away at the age of 80, a landmark he had reached only a few months earlier. Since 1976, he had been deeply involved in space matters - first as President of CNES and then simultaneously as President of ESA between 1981 and 1984. He was later French Minister of Research and Technology (responsible for space) on two occasions: first
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