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India will fit Imaging Riometer (IR) at its permanent research base in Antarctica to study the absorption of radio noise in the lowest region of ionosphere. This will be done in a few months’ time, a top scientist from the Indian Institute of Geomagnetism (IIG), said.
"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 said.
Elango and K U Nair of IIG have already reached the station 'Maitri' and 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 gather data on the absorption of 38 MHz radio noise in the lowest part of the ionosphere, at altitudes between 50 and 110 km, over Antarctica, Bhattacharya said.
Extra ionisation is produced in the atmosphere at high latitudes because of precipitation of energetic charged particles.
The particles are produced 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.
India is the sixth nation, after Australia, Britain, China, Denmark, and Japan to fit this permanent IR in Antarctica to collect data on radio signal absorption in the lower ionosphere over an area not covered by the other IRs, Bhattacharya said.
"However, the region around 'Maitri' has very low magnetic field compared to the Arctic region, and the magnetic field is also decreasing more rapidly. Therefore, greater precipitation of particles is expected and hence the IR study is taken up by IIG," she said.
In the interim, six such instruments are operational in the Arctic region, which have been installed by few western countries, she added.
IIG scientists will examine how the particle precipitation alters the ionospheric environment in terms of its electrical conductivity, in response to transient events on the sun.
