CU-ST Radar in Astronomy

Facility Main Webpage: Click Here

Guides: Dr. Abhirup Datta (IIT-Indore), Dr. Narendranath Patra (IIT-Indore) and Dr. Ashik Paul (Calcutta University)

Project Completed: Jan 2024

Project

We know the power of ST Radar which used in Atmospheric and weather studies. These applications require the antenna to be used in active mode, where it illuminates the target with its own power source. The huge power beamed per cycle comes at the cost of high costs being incurred. There is another way to exploit these facilities: using them in passive mode.

In passive mode operation, we depend on our target’s own radiation or the radiation that target reflects of its surface and falls on the Radar Array Antenna. In this way, we bypass any need of power emission from the Radar, hence there is huge reduction of operational costs. We worked with the CU-ST Radar at Kalyani, West Bengal. An almost circular 475 Yagi-Uda Antenna Array at 53 MHz with a bandwidth of 3MHz which has a collecting area of 7000 m2.

This collaboration project is between Indian Institute of Technology, Indore and Calcutta University

Project 1: Solar Observation using CU-ST Radar operating in Passive Mode - Done

We performed Sun Tracking experiment using the antenna on 3rd February 2023. One beam was made to point at an altitude of 50 degrees and towards the South of the facility. Which was the peak elevation point of Sun. The Beam was stationary while the Sun crossed the beam while transiting.

We obtained the incident power on the Antenna as a function of time. The predicted peak time for the sun was 11:50 AM IST. We have studied the data and our work was presented at the 41st Meeting of Astronomical Society of India.

Publications:

Solar Observation using CU-ST Radar in Passive Mode - Poster at 41st Meeting of Astronomical Society of India - Presented (Best Poster Award in the category Instrumentation and Techniques, Click here).
Solar Observation at 53 MHz using CU-ST Radar with Signal processing Techniques in Passive Mode Operation - Paper at 6th Conference on Indian Radar Meteorology, (IRAD-2024), Indore, India) - Presented (My oral presentation was given the iRAD-2024 SPC Award). Publication in Springer Book Series.

Project 2: Virgo Observation using CU-ST Radar operating in Passive Mode - Done

We observed Virgo Transit using the antenna on 13th November 15th November 24th December and 25th December, 2022. One beam was made to point at an altitude of 89 degrees and towards the South of the facility which was the peak elevation point of Virgo on all days. The Beam was stationary while the source crossed the beam while transiting.

We obtained the incident power on the Antenna as a function of time. The predicted peak was 08:31 AM IST. We have studied the data and performed comparative analysis of all the dates.

Publications:

Results will be shared soon.

Project 3: Observing Taurus A using CU-STR operating in Passive Mode - Done

We have observed Taurus A Transit using the antenna for a few hours around its peak time.

Publications:

A. Ghosh et. al, "Low-Frequency Observation of Taurus-A with Signal Processing Techniques in Passive Mode Operation of CU-ST Radar" 2023 8th International Conference on Computers and Devices for Communication (CODEC), Kolkata, India, 2023, pp. 1-2, doi: 10.1109/CODEC60112.2023.10466060. Click

Conclusion

The entire pipeline for observing and processing Radar binary data was developed for any astronomical observation project. The observation results are shared as Papers published in well known Journals like IEEE Xplore and Springer.

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