(In reverse Chronological order)

11. One-day online workshop entitled ‘NavIC: Development, Scope, and Applications’, 25 January, 2024

Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) is now routinely used for myriads of applications with reliability, precision, global, all-weather availability, and cost-effectiveness. Using satellite signals, GNSS provides accurate position, timing, and velocity (PVT) information. The Indian Regional Navigational Satellite System (IRNSS), also called the Navigation with Indian constellation (NavIC) is the regional navigation system designed, developed, and maintained by the Indian Space Research organization (ISRO).

A one-day online Workshop entitled “NavIC: Development, Scopes, and Applications” was organized by Indian Radio Science Society (InRaSS) on 25th January, 2024. It was co-sponsored by Commission C of the International Union of Radio Science (URSI). The main purpose of the workshop was to expose the participants on the present status, potentials, challenges, future, and various applications of the NavIC system. The invitation to the workshop was well-circulated globally with active support from United Nations Office of the Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA), Vienna, Austria. As many as 468 researchers and students, from 33 countries with varying levels of experience, expertise, age and professional background had filled up the registration form. Out of these more than 300 applicants actually participated in the online event. The workshop program included 6 talks of 45 min each, delivered by experts from ISRO as well as academic and research institutions in India. All the talks were received with great interest as evident from the feedback submitted by the participants as well as from the discussions and many Q&A during the tight time schedule. The participants were also exposed to the state-of-the-art of the related hardware through presentations from 5 manufacturers in a “manufacturers’ session”. Finally, in the “round-table” panel discussion at the end of the workshop, the challenges and prospects were presented by the experts from academia, research, and industry. The workshop generated ample interest among all the stakeholders. Request for similar workshops with more focused topics were received; the participants also expressed their interest for physical workshops on the topics. All the participants who attended most of the sessions and filled up the feedback form were provided digital participation certificates. In addition, 12 young participants, below the age of 35 years, who scored the highest in an online Quiz, given at the end of the event were selected for the prize consisting of a good book on GNSS. The prize was partially financed using support from Commission C, URSI.

Please see a poster of this event here

Recorded videos of the individual lectures of the workshop are available only for the members of InRaSS. If any member is interested please contact by sending email to inrass.india@gmail.com

10. Ninth A P Mitra Memorial Lecture, 15 October, 2023

This webinar was the 9th in the series of Annual Lectures being organised by the NPL Former Scientists forum (NPL-FSF), Indian Radio Science Society (InRaSS) and the CSIR National Physical Laboratory (CSIR-NPL). The Lecture series is organised in the memory of late Dr A P Mitra, FRS, the former DG-CSIR, Director, NPL and former President, URSI

This year the lecture was delivered as a webinar by an internationally renowned Space physicist, Dr Jan Bergman, Instrument Manager, Radio & Plasma Wave Investigation (RPWI) payload for the ESA Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) mission, Swedish Institute of Space Physics, Uppsala, Sweden. The Title of the talk is “JUICE – Europe’s flagship mission to Jupiter” and it was delivered on 15th October, 2023 at 6:30 pm IST

Please see a poster of this event here

Please listen to a recorded video of the Lecture by clicking the link Ninth APM Lecture 2023

9. Conference on Frontiers in Space and Atmospheric Sciences (COFSAS), 2023 (Virtual)

The Conference on Frontiers in Space and Atmospheric Sciences (COFSAS), 2023 (Virtual) was jointly organized by the Institute of Astronomy Space and Earth Science (IASES) (Kolkata), Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University (BBAU) (Lucknow), Koneru Lakshmaiah Deemed to be University (KLU) (Guntur) and Indian Radio Science Society (InRaSS) during 15-16 March 2023 was aimed to create an opportunity for extensive and interactive discussion and learning experiences on various atmospheric and space sciences topics. This conference covered five different topics of atmospheric and space sciences viz. (I) Atmospheric Research Through Radars, (II) Solar-Terrestrial Interaction and Space Weather, (III) Upper Atmospheric Studies Through GNSS Techniques, (IV) Modelling and Simulations in Atmospheric Sciences and (V) Effects on the Atmosphere due to Terrestrial Hazards. Eminent scientists and researchers from prestigious research institutes and universities presented their valuable works on atmospheric and space science’s recent scope and advancement.

There were two plenary talks presented by Prof. Dipankar Banerjee (Plenary) (ARIES) and Prof. Amit Kumar Patra (NARL). A total number of seventeen invited lectures were there by Prof. Abhay Singh, Prof. Abhilash S., Prof. Dibyendu Chakrabarty, Prof. Animesh Maitra, Prof. Abhirup Datta, Prof. Tarun Kumar Pant, Prof. Pralay Kumar Karmakar, Dr. Anirban Guha, Dr. Narendra Ojha, Dr. Grandhi Kishore Kumar, Dr. Gopi K Seemala, Dr. Mamata Sahoo, D. Vijay P. Kanawade, Dr. K. Venkatesh, Dr. Kaustav Chakravarty, Dr. Mahesh Shrivastava, and Dr. Vipin K. Yadav. There were also 12 contributed talks, mostly from research scholars and post-doctoral fellows.

The conference was chaired by Dr. Sudipta Sasmal (IASES), Dr. Ajeet K Maurya (BBAU), and Dr. Sampad Kumar Panda (KLU). Prof. Amitava Sen Gupta (The Northcap University) was the key person from InRaSS and also the Convener of the Scientific Organizing Committee.

The link for the COFSAS conference is http://iases.org.in/cofsas-2023.html

8. Tatarskii Memorial Lecture, 23 December, 2022

Propagation and Scattering through Turbulent Media by Dr Saba Mudaliar

Abstract: The need for studying wave propagation and scattering through inhomogeneous media appears in numerous applications in several branches of science. Tatarskii was a pioneer who developed most of the theoretical framework for this topic. Ishimaru is another pioneer who developed statistical models for physical phenomena across such diverse disciplines as acoustics, optics, electromagnetics, seismology, plasma physics, medical imaging, wireless communication, etc. We will review the classical theoretical approaches to this problem and briefly describe recent developments and path ahead.

Brief Introduction of the Speaker: Saba Mudaliar is a senior researcher at the Sensors Directorate of Air Force Research Laboratory in Dayton, Ohio. He has extensive experience working on propagation and scattering in statistically modelled environments. For the last 15 years he has continuously organized special sessions on random and complex media in IEEE Antennas and Propagation symposia and URSI meetings. He is on the editorial board of the journal Waves in Random and Complex Media. He is a guest editor for the 2023 special issue in honour of V.I. Tatarskii.

Please listen to a recorded video of the Lecture by clicking the link Tatarskii Memorial Lecture 2022

7. Eighth A P Mitra Memorial Lecture, 17 December, 2022

This webinar was the 8th in the series of Annual Lectures being organised by the NPL Former Scientists forum (NPL-FSF), Indian Radio Science Society (InRaSS) and the CSIR National Physical Laboratory (CSIR-NPL). The Lecture series is organised in the memory of late Dr A P Mitra, FRS, the former DG-CSIR, Director, NPL and former President, URSI

This year the lecture was delivered as a webinar by an internationally renowned solar physicist Prof Dipankar Banerjee, Director, Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES), Nainital, UP, INDIA. The Title of the talk is “Aditya L1: India’s space laboratory to study the variability of our nearest star, the Sun” and it was delivered on 17th December, 2022 at 6:30 pm IST

Please see a poster of this event here

Please listen to a recorded video of the Lecture by clicking the link Eighth APM Lecture 2022

6. 2022 URSI Regional Conference on Radio Science (URSI-RCRS 2022) 1 – 4 Dec, 2022

Regional Conference on Radio Science (RCRS) is a biennial flagship conference of the Indian Radio Science Society (InRaSS). It attracts a large number of researchers across India in the diverse field of radio science. Recently the RCRS has been recognized as a regional event of the International Union of Radio Science (URSI). The present version was designated as URSI-RCRS 2022 and was hosted by the IIT Indore, Indore, MP, India under the auspices of InRaSS during 1- 4 December, 2022.

Please visit the website for this conference by clicking this link URSI-RCRS 2022

The main objective of the Conference was to review current trends in research, present new discoveries and make plans for future research work or for specific projects. An equally important objective was also to encourage scientific exchange and fellowship amongst industry colleagues and academicians or professionals in India.

The URSI-RCRS 2022 scientific program dealt with research areas that broadly covered the Ten Scientific Commissions of URSI – namely, Electromagnetic Metrology; Fields and Waves; Radio-communication Systems and Signal Processing; Electronics and Photonics; Electromagnetic Environment and Interference; Wave Propagation and Remote Sensing; Ionospheric Radio and Propagation; Waves in Plasmas; Radio Astronomy; and Electromagnetics in Biology and Medicine. There were 345 registered delegates, comprising 99 Females and 246 Males; 155 students and 190 regular participants. The scientific program consisted of 4 General Lectures, 8 SPC Finalist presentations, 219 Orals and 103 Posters.

The proceeding of the conference is available on the following link Proceedings of the URSI-RCRS 2022.

A selected set of papers has also been published by IEEE Xplore Proc. URSI-RCRS 2022

5. 3rd URSI Atlantic / Asia-Pacific Radio Science Meeting – 2022, 29 May – 3 June 2022

The triennial URSI Atlantic Radio Science Conference (URSI AT-RASC) is one of the URSI flagship conferences besides the URSI General Assembly and Scientific Symposium and the APRASC conference (Asia-Pacific Radio Science Conference). Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this 3rd URSI AT-RASC was moved from 2021 to 2022 and URSI AP-RASC (the Asia Pacific Radio Science Conference) could not be held in Australia as planned due to current travel restrictions. The combined 2022 AT-AP-RASC event, hosted in Gran Canaria, offered a hybrid format, offering on-site as well as online participation and aims to receive submissions from worldwide within the domains covered by all ten Commissions of URSI. Please visit the website for this conference by clicking this link AT-AP-RASC 2022

4. Seventh A P Mitra Memorial Lecture, 16 September, 2021

This webinar was the 7th in the series of Annual Lectures being organised by the NPL Former Scientists forum (NPL-FSF), Indian Radio Science Society (InRaSS) and the CSIR National Physical Laboratory (CSIR-NPL). The Lecture series is organised in the memory of late Dr A P Mitra, FRS, the former DG-CSIR, Director, NPL and former President, URSI

This year the lecture was delivered as a webinar by an internationally renowned space scientist Dr Patricia Doherty, Director & Principal Scientist, Institute for Scientific Research Boston College, USA. The Title of the talk is “Storms from the Sun: The Science of Space Weather” and it was delivered on 16th September, 2021 at 6:30 pm IST

Please see a poster of this event here

Please listen to a recorded video of the Lecture by clicking the link Seventh APM Lecture 2021

3. XXXIVth URSI General Assembly and Scientific Symposium, 28 Aug – 4 Sept 2021

This latest 34th URSI General Assembly was held at the Sapienza University of Rome, Italy. It was attended by about 1500 delegates from across the world and was held in a hybrid mode, both onsite and online.

Please visit the website for this conference by clicking this link ursi2021.org

2. 2020 URSI Regional Conference on Radio Science (URSI-RCRS 2020) 12-14 Feb, 2020

Regional Conference on Radio Science (RCRS) is a biannual flagship conference of the Indian Radio Science Society (InRaSS) and it attracts a large number of researchers across India in the area of radio science. The 2020 version was co-sponsored by URSI. It was hosted by the IIT-BHU, Varanasi, India under the auspices of InRaSS during 12-14 February, 2020.

The main objective of the Conference was to review current trends in research, present new discoveries and make plans for future research work or for specific projects. An equally important objective was also to encourage scientific exchange and fellowship amongst industry colleagues and academicians or professionals in India.

The URSI-RCRS 2020 scientific program dealt with research areas that broadly covered the Ten Scientific Commissions of URSI – namely, Electromagnetic Metrology; Fields and Waves; Radio-communication Systems and Signal Processing; Electronics and Photonics; Electromagnetic Environment and Interference; Wave Propagation and Remote Sensing; Ionospheric Radio and Propagation; Waves in Plasmas; Radio Astronomy; and Electromagnetics in Biology and Medicine.

Please visit the website for this conference by clicking this link URSI-RCRS 2020

1. 2019 URSI Asia Pacific Radio Science Conference (AP-RASC 2019), March 9-15, 2019

This was the highly successful URSI Flagship Conference, being held in New Delhi, INDIA after a gap of 14 years. This conference was the first major venture undertaken by InRaSS as the Local Organiser.

Please visit the archived website for this conference by clicking this link AP-RASC 2019

Please also see the Final Report for this conference by clicking this link AP-RASC 2019 Final Report