RRI sends India’s first team to the Arctic for winter expedition
BENGALURU: Girish BS, from the Electronics Engineering Group at Raman Research Institute (RRI), will be leading India’s first team for their maiden winter expedition to the Arctic region. This will be the first time that researchers will undertake the characterization of the radio frequency environment in the Svalbard region of the Arctic. Such a survey will help astronomers assess the suitability of this uniquely located region, for carrying out precision astronomy measurements.
India has its research station – Himadri, operational in the Arctic region since 2008. The scientists will conduct experiments for astronomy, climate change and atmospheric science in the region. This survey at the site can potentially open avenues for deploying low-frequency radio telescopes in the region. The team will depart for a month-long project, funded by the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES). The National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research (NCPOR), Goa, is the nodal agency spearheading the expedition, scheduled between December 19, 2023 and January 15, 2024.
Engineers and scientists at RRI have been working on the development of the SARAS (Shaped Antenna measurement of the background Radio Spectrum) series of experiments for over a decade. SARAS aims to study the faint cosmological signal from hydrogen, commonly referred to as the 21-cm signal, emerging from the Cosmic Dawn and the Epoch of Reionization. Cosmic Dawn denotes the period when the first stars and galaxies were born in the universe. These are the two vital phases which the universe underwent, during its early stages of evolution several billions of years ago. These periods in cosmic history are not well understood due to a lack of observations.
Sensitive electronic instruments will be used to study the incoming radio signals in the frequency range of 5 – 500 megahertz (MHz) at the accessible sites in the vicinity of Himadri. Tarun Souradeep, Director, RRI, said, “Delighted that colleagues enthusiastically responded to the call for the first winter expedition to the Arctic region to explore the possibility of deploying the home-built SARAS radio telescope.”