India will install Imaging Riometer at its permanent research station in Antarctica in a few months time to study the absorption of radio noise in the lowest part of ionosphere, a top scientist from the Indian Institute of Geomagnetism said here.
“The three-member team, led by IIG scientist P. Elango, will assemble and install an array of 16 receivers of Imaging Riometer,” IIG Director Dr. Archana Bhattacharyya told PTI.
Elango and K.U. Nair of IIG have already reached the station ‘Maitri’ while C. Selvaraj will join them on November 30, she said.
“It would take at least two to three months to complete the installation of the Riometer because of difficult terrain and strong wind conditions prevailing at ‘Maitri’,” she said.
The IR will collect data on the absorption of 38 MHz radio noise in the lowest part of the ionosphere, at altitudes between 50 and 110 km, over Antartica, Bhattacharya said.
Additional ionisation is produced in the atmosphere at high latitudes due to precipitation of energetic charged particles.
The particles are generated during solar flares or geomagnetic storms caused by geo-effective Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) from Sun or high speed solar wind from Coronal Holes on the Sun, she explained.
