PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES
RESEARCH PROG
Observation Programs:
PI on GMRT Jupiter observation program – 2003.
Co-I on NASA Chandra observation
program for Jupiter, Saturn, Earth – 2000-2004.
Co-I on Joint Chandra-HST Jupiter observation
program - 2002
Co-I on XMM Saturn
observation program.
Projects:
Co-I on RESPOND Project “Cosmic ray induced ionization changes and
effects on aerosol and cloud microphysical properties” {2003-2006}, jointly with IIT-K.
Experiments:
Indian PI of SA
Associate-I on soft x-ray
telescope of ASTROSAT.
RESEARCH SUPERVISION :
Ph.D.'s - 1
The
M.Tech. Thesis Supervision - 2
K. Rajmohan,
Department of Atmospheric Sciences, Cochin University of Science and
Technology, dissertation "Electron Excitation of Triton's
Atmosphere", during February- September 1994.
K.B.Smart, Department of Physical Oceanography, Cochin University of Science and Technology, dissertation titled "Sputtering of Europa by the Jovian Magnetospheric Plasma", during November 2002-May 2003
TEACHING :
Developed curriculum and delivered introductory lectures to graduate students (research fellows) of SPL on topics :– The Sun, solar wind, and solar radiation; Planetary system: planets, satellites, comets, their atmospheres, ionospheres, and magnetospheres.
Invited lectures on the topics - Planetary
Atmospheres and Exploration of the Solar System, delivered to teachers from
Universities and colleges as a part of UGC-Refresher
course in Physics at
Delivered
nine lectures on "Atmospheres of Planets and Satellites", to
post-graduate students of the 3rd United
Nations-CSSTEAP Post Graduate Course in Space Physics and Atmospheric
Sciences, PRL, Ahmedabad,
Lecture on "Planetary
Atmospheric Emissions", delivered to students of PLANEX Workshop on Planetary Atmospheres, Ionospheres, and
Magnetospheres, SPL, VSSC,
Lectures on “Space
Sciences”, delivered at School Teachers
Workshop as a part of VSSC Space Week celebrations at CUSAT, Ernakulam, on October 8, 2003.
CONFERENCES/SYMPOSIA:
ORGANIZATION : National
Co-Convener, 22nd Meeting of Astronomical Society of
Organizer, PLANEX
workshop on "Planetary Atmospheres, Ionospheres, and Magnetospheres",
February 17-22, SPL, VSSC, Trivandrum 2003.
ORGANIZATION : International
Convener
(with 1
co-convener), Session SP18 on “Planetary Upper Atmospheres and Ionospheres
and their coupling with Magnetospheres”, AOGS First Annual Meeting,
Convener (with 5 co-conveners),
Session P02: “X-rays From The Solar System And Beyond”, AGU 2005 Spring Meeting,
23-27 May 2005, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA.
Convener (with 3 co-conveners), Session PS04 on “Planets, Comets, and Satellites:
Surface, Atmosphere, Ionosphere System and coupling with Magnetosphere”, AOGS
2nd Annual Meeting,
Co-Convener (with 2 co-conveners), Session on “Comparative
Magnetospheres”, AOGS 2nd Annual Meeting,
Session
Chairman:
Session
on “Space Physics and the Exploration Initiative: Science Opportunities,
Hazards, and Resources”, 2004 AGU Fall Meeting, 13-17 December 2004,
Session on “Gas Giants Posters”, 2004
AGU Fall Meeting, 13-17 December 2004,
Session
on “X Rays From the Solar System and Beyond”, The 2005 Joint Assembly,
New Orleans, LA, May 26, 2005.
Session on “Planets,
Comets, and Satellites: Surface, Atmosphere, Ionosphere System and coupling
with Magnetosphere”, AOGS 2nd Annual
Meeting,
Session on “Comparative
Magnetospheres”, AOGS 2nd Annual
Public Lectures in the
session “The Sun and Planets”, AOGS 2nd
Annual Meeting,
PARTICIPATION :
Attended more than 45
conferences in
RECENT INVITED TALKS:
"Auroral Emissions of Jupiter", Physical Research Laboratory,
Ahmedabad, December 13, 2001.
"Planetary Atmospheres
and Ionospheres", PLANEX Workshop
on Meteorites, Asteroids and Planets,
"Multi-spectral
"X-ray
Studies of the Jovian System", National
Space Science Symposium,
"Multi-wavelength Observations of Jupiter", Raman Research
Institute,
"Space Program of
"Soft X-Ray Emissions from Planets and
Moons", ESLAB 36 Symposium on
"Earth-Like Planets and Moons", ESTEC, Noordwijk,
"Auroral
Radiation of Jupiter", Swedish Institute of Space Physics,
"The Indian Space Program", Institut d'Astrophysique et de Géophysique, Université de Liège,
"Auroral Observations of the Giant Planets",
34th COSPAR Scientific Assembly,
"X-Rays from Solar
System Bodies", Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Chilton,
"Solar
System X-rays",
"Indian
Space Program", Southwest Research Institute,
"New results on x-ray
emissions from the Jovian system", 22nd
Meeting of Astronomical Society of
“Planetary atmospheric emissions”, PLANEX
Workshop on Planetary Atmospheres, Ionospheres, and Magnetospheres, SPL,
VSSC,
“Satellites
of Jupiter and Saturn”, PLANEX Workshop on Remote Sensing of Planetary Bodies, PRL,
Ahmedabad,
“Remote
Sensing of Solar System Bodies in Soft X-Rays”, NSSTC Space Science Colloquium,
NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL, USA, September 24, 2004.
“X-rays from the
Jupiter and Saturn Systems”, Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
“Low Energy Neutral
Atom (LENA) Imaging of the Moon Environment”, Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California
Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA, December 10, 2004.
“X-Rays
from the Solar System Bodies”, Joint CSP-IAR Colloquium,
PROFESSIONAL SERVICES:
Member,
SGTG WG “Space Sciences and Interplanetary Missions” of ISRO - Vision
2000-2025.
Member,
Indian CAWSES Program definition team.
Referee, International and
Indian Journals
Team
Member, ASTROSAT (Indian Astronomy Satellite).
Recognized
Research Guide,
Member and Contributor in
development of PLANEX “National Research Program on Planetary Sciences and
Planetary Exploration in
Secretary, Planetary Sciences,
President-Elect, Planetary Sciences,
Member of Scientific Program Committee of 2nd
AOGS
Outstanding student paper awards evaluation
committee, AGU Fall 2005 meeting,
Member of Local Organizing Committee for
"Workshop on CAWSES
Executive Member, Indian Space Scientist
Association, 2001-2002.
Member of Local Organizing Committee for
"Workshop on Equatorial Aeronomy", September 1996, Space Physics
Laboratory, Vikram Sarabhai
Space Centre,
Member of Local Organizing
Committee, "National Space Science Symposium" December 1994, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre,
Member of Local Organizing
Committee for symposium on "Advances in Planetary Physics", December
1987, Department of Applied Physics,
Vice-President,
HONOURS AND AWARDS:
Best paper award for the article "Non-Stationary
Plasma Processes on Comets and its Implications", presented at the
PLASMA-95 Symposium held at
Invited by the Editor of "Reviews of Geophysics" (a journal of American Geophysical
Union) to jointly write a review article on '
Member, Experts Panel of Kerala Academy of Sciences for selection of students for
“Red Rover Goes to Mars” competition organized by Planetary Society of USA.
NRC Senior Research Assoctiateship at
DISTINCT ACHIEVEMENT AND RECOGNITION:
Figure 1 of our review article made the Cover Page of August 2000, vol.
38, No. 3, issue of the journal "Reviews
of Geophysics".
NASA [http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2002/07mar_jupiterpuzzle.htm],
CXC-Harvard [http://chandra.harvard.edu/press/02_releases/press_022702.html],
JPL, MSFC, SpaceFlight Now, ScienceOnline,
Astronomy News, Discovery Channel, SpaceNews, ScienceNow, AstroNews, and several
others have released Press Reports and Breaking News; while NASA-MSFC, Science@News, and CNN.com, Scientific American, New
Scientist, Sky & Telescope, Astronomy.com, and many others have made Web
Stories on the new findings that we reported in the NATURE paper, vol.415,
p.1000, published in Feb.28, 2002, issue. The Web Report on our Nature paper
made the Most POPULAR Website on CNN.com (Space/TECH) and it made The "ASTRONOMY PICTURE OF THE DAY" on
Figure from our article was on the Cover Page of
Earth in Space, October 2000 issue.
X-rays from Earth – Press Release from NASA on
Our GRL Paper by Bhardwaj et al. “Solar Control on Jupiter’s Equatorial X-ray Emissions:
26-29 November 2003 XMM-Newton Observation”, Geophysical Research Letters, 32, L03S08, doi:10.1029/2004GL021497,
pp1-5 (2005), selected as “AGU Journal Highlight” [http://www.agu.org/sci_soc/prrl/jh050309.html#3].
ESA [http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/object/index.cfm?fobjectid=36688]
along with
NASA
Science [http://www.nasa.gov/centers/marshall/news/news/releases/2005/05-025.html]
and CXC Chandra [http://xrtpub.harvard.edu/press/05_releases/press_030205.html]
did a Press Release on our JGR paper by Elsner et al. “Simultaneous Chandra
X-ray, HST Ultraviolet, and Ulysses Radio Observations of Jupiter’s Aurora”, Journal of Geophysical Research, 110, A01207,
doi:10.1029/2004JA010717, pp.1-16 (2005).
NASA HQ [http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2005/may/HQ_05134_Chandra.html]
and CXC-Harvard [http://chandra.cfa.harvard.edu/press/05_releases/press_052505.html]
did a press release on our ApJL paper “Chandra
Observation of an X-ray Flare at Saturn: Evidence for Direct Solar Control on
Saturn’s Disk X-ray Emissions”, Astrophysical Journal
Letters, 624, L121-L124 (2005).
HindustanTimes.com [http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/5967_1379536,001600060001.htm] and many others like Spaceflight [http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n0505/26sunxrays/],
rediff.com [http://us.rediff.com/news/2005/may/26sat.htm], and MSNBC [http://msnbc.msn.com/id/7980664/]
etc.
CXC did photo Press release [http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2005/saturn_rngs/]
on our paper “The Discovery of Oxygen Kα X-ray
Emission from the Rings of Saturn, published in Astrophysical Journal Letters, 627, L73-L76 (2005).
T
Awarded fellowship grants by
United Nations Office of Outer Space Affairs (UN-OOSA),
Travel Grant awarded by Indian National Science
Academy (INSA) for attending the 32nd COSPAR Scientific Assembly, July 1998,
Awarded grants by COSPAR to attend COSPAR Scientific
Assemblies held at
SERC-Young Scientist Travel
Grant awarded by Department of
Science and Technology (DST) for participating in 33rd COSPAR Scientific Assembly,
July 2000, Warsaw, Poland. Grant awarded by COSTED (Committee on Science and
Technology in Developing Countries) for attending 33rd COSPAR Scientific
Assembly, July 2000,
Travel Grant awarded by ESA for attending the ESLAB 36 Symposium on "Earth-Like
Planets and Moons", ESTEC,
Travel Grant awarded by Indian National Science
Academy (INSA) for attending the 34th COSPAR Scientific Assembly, October 2002,
Travel
Grant awarded by American Astronomical Society (USA) for attending the
International Conference on Exploration and Utilization of the Moon (ICEUM-6),
Travel
Grant awarded by Cassini-Project at JPL for attending the
“Magnetospheres of the Outer Planets” meeting in Leicester, UK, August 7-12,
2005, while I was at NASA-MSFC.
LABO
Member, Academic Committee
of Space Physics Laboratory (SPL), which is responsible for periodic evaluation
and progress of research fellows.
Member of
Computer/Computation Need Committee of SPL.
Coordinator,
preparation of Poster Panels of the SPL for Space Museum of VSSC.
COLLABO
I have been collaborating on various research
programs with the scientists from the following Institutions:
Physical Research Laboratory,
Ahmedabad.
Tata Institute of Fundamental
Research, Mumbai.
ISRO
Satellite Centre,
Raman Research Institute,
National Centre for Radio
Astronomy (GMRT-TIFR), Pune.
Indian
Southwest Research Institute,
Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
Swedish
Observatoire de
Paris, DESPA,
LPAP,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
Blackett
Laboratory,
Max-Planck-Institut für
Aeronomie,
Space Research Organisation
Mullard Space Science Laboratory,
XMM-Newton SOC, Apartado 50727, Villafranca, 28080 Madrid, Spain.
Max-Planck-Institut fur Extratressestrische Physik, Garching, Germany.
INAF - Istituto di Astrofisica Spaziale e Fisica
Cosmica (IASF), Rome, Italy.
Dept. of
Physics and Technology,
INAF Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica, Palermo, Italy
Center
for Astrophysics,
Los Alamos National Laboratory, USA
JHU-APL, USA