With Love From Antarctica

Last week, I got a call in the morning from some Gopal! Deep in sleep I could not realize that the only Gopal I know would call me at that time, because he was living in the southern most continent of the globe! At the volleyball ground a fat man appeared in the evening, and it was Gopal to my surprise, my friend and a technical person at EGRL, Tirunelveli. He is back from Antarctica after spending more than a year there. I was keen to listen to him to know how the life at the most harshest continents of the globe was! He gave me a huge volume of photographs and videos. I would like to share some of them here so that my friends can get a glimpse of the nature of life and activities at the icy land.

Bharati: India's station at Antarctica

Maitri: India's station at Antarctica

View of Moon from Antarctica

National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research (NCAOR), Goa, under the Ministry of Earth Sciences, Govt. of India is the responsible agency of Indian Antarctic programs. India has three stations at the continent: Dakshin Gangothri (1983), Maitri (1989) and Bharati.
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A Bit of History:

The first Indian to set his foot on Antarctic continent was Lieutenant Ram Charan, a meteorologist in the Indian Navy, who joined an Australian expedition in 1960. Indian interests in Antarctic research goes back to 1970's. As a result of some Indo - Russian agreement Indian scientists could join Russian team to Antarctica during those period. The research activities of India's polar studies got momentum when the first Indian expedition to Antarctica in 1981 was conducted under the leadership of Prof. Syed Zahoor Qasim.

The team landed in Antarctica on 9th January 1982 and hoisted Indian flag on the icy continent. India's first station at Antarctica, Dakshin Gangotri, was set up after two years of the first expedition. Later the station got buried under ice. It was restored and is being protected as a historic site. Another name in the history of Antarctic program of India, as a student, is Dr. Dinabandhu Sahoo. He was the first Indian student to reach Antarctica, who joined the seventh of Indian Antarctic expedition. India's third station Bharati is at a distance of 3000 kilo meter from the second station, Maitri! People who want to go to Bharati from Maitri sail to Cape town in South Africa and then to Bharati (if not in a helicopter or air craft)! How vast is Antarctica!

Courtesy: The Hindu

Having established the scientific capabilities of India at the Southern most continent, the first Indian team set out to visit the South 'Pole' which was still thousands of kilo meters away from Indian station Maitri! The team was led by 62 year old Dr. Rasik Ravindra! Mr. Ajay Dhar, a technical officer in the Indian Institute of Geomagnetism was lucky to be part of the team in the year 2010.

A Visit To The Legendary Alibag Observatory

Old Alibag magnetic observatory.
It is still working!

In 1900, the British Indian government decided to electrify tram service in Bombay and it was a threat to the magnetic observations at Colaba observatory.

Dr. N.A.F. Moos found an alternative place at Alibaug, 30km away from Bombay - a pleasant place in Raigad district of Maharashtra. Most of the IIG staff and family members and research scholars came to the observatory.

Cricket at Alibag beach.

After a cup of tea and snacks we started playing cricket at the beach women folk were engaged in some other games. Alibag is a tourist attraction due to various facilities available and its green and pleasant atmosphere.

The observatory campus houses magnetometers and some other instruments like any other IIG observatory. It has a lot of coconut trees inside the campus. Most of the buildings are almost a hundred year old! 

Old building: The ground floor
houses the museum.

The greatest attraction here is the museum set up. It preserves a lot of instruments and tools used in IIG at various times. There are lots of varieties of magnetometers and telescopes. There was an old chair used by Dr. Moos too!

At Alibag beach: an old fort used
 by Sivaji is seen in the background.

For a few years, the Colaba and Alibag observatories were run together to compare the observations at these two sites. If any mismatch in observations were seen, it could not be used as an observatory. But fortunately the magnetic observations at Alibag was as good as it was at Colaba.

There were no one to explain the story of old instruments in the observatory museums, as so many visitors came together. All I could understand was that those instruments were used a hundred years ago. Each instrument must have a story to tell. I don't know which magnetometer recorded the historic aurora at Bombay! I feel there is a need to preserve and document a lot of things at IIG. Not only mere instruments; the story of each instrument should be documented well. The historic aurora was recorded manually at the IIG since magnetometers were not recording the measurements automatically. But nobody knows who recorded that! May be Indian scientists are not good in documenting the history of Indian science!

Aurora At Bombay!

1. A beautiful aurora.

Aurora, the beautiful display of light that the nature presents! Those who live in high-latitude countries enjoy aurora very often. Those in the tropical regions enjoys the photos and videos of aurora. People living in tropics always wanted to watch an aurora directly, but nature did not show mercy always.

Once during a conference I heard that in the past an aurora had been visible even in Bombay! I could not even believe this news at first. Then I tried to know what had actually happened.

2. Aurora recorded at Colaba in 06-Feb-1872

It was in 1872 February 06 that the following news report appeared in the Times Of India.  "Will it surprise our readers to learn that the Aurora Borealis was plainly visible in Bombay Sunday last? Such was indeed the case and its effects were felt too. After sunset on Sunday, the Aurora was slightly visible, and constantly kept changing colour, becoming deeply violet, when it was intense about 3 o'clock on Monday morning. It was distinctly visible until sunrise on Monday. The influence of this atmospheric disturbance was unpleasant both for our person and our correspondence. The cold was unpleasantly keen, and all telegraphic communication was stopped for some hours.

"Both before and after its height, the aurora affected the working of both sections of the British-Indian Submarine cable, [one] section running east and west and the other North and South. At 8 o'clock yesterday morning the magnetic disturbance in the telegraph offices was very strong. The extent of this disturbance may be gathered from the fact that all the lines to England in connection with the British-Indian submarine cable were affected for hours and so were the Government lines. At Aden, the aurora was brilliant in the extreme." (Courtesy: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2011SW000686/pdf)

3. Aurora Australis, a satellite derived image.
(11 September 2005)

The historic aurora occurred on 04th February 1872. It was reportedly observed in the middle eastern countries too. The aurora was observed by many of the people of Bombay, including NAF Moos who, several years later became the director of the Colaba Observatory. The observations were done manually during that time and therefore Colaba observatory had a record of the magnitude of the storm happened then. Many observatories world wide could not record the event since the recording pens crossed the limits of the paper on which the geomagnetic values were recorded automatically!

Another event, a stronger one also happened in the year when Moos was born, 1859. This storm was first observed, recorded and studied by Richard C. Carrington, and therefor called as Carrington storm. Several such strong events of magnetic storms continues to happen. But not much about that is known except the magnetic record in Bombay taken then.

Such events are not to be recorded only in a magnetogram. The experience should have written well with documentary proof. The Indian Institute of Geomagnetism should move towards recording and preserving its history since it is one of the oldest scientific organization in India.

History of science has a lot of charm in it, that most of the Indian scientists don't appreciate. I believe that there should be some serious efforts towards recording the history of the pursuit of science that will amaze the generations to come.

Note: This article need to be updated later. If any one have something interesting related to it, please share that with me.

Reference:
wikipedia
agu
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/
http://www.solarstorms.org/SRefStorms.html
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/TE041i004p00397/abstract

Brief Historical Note On Colaba Observatory

An old photograph of Colaba Observatory

This afternoon I met Prof. Ram for our weekly discussions. Our discussion got diverted at one instant of time and I was amazed by the stories Prof. Ram told me about the pioneers of Indian geomagnetic studies. I wanted to know more about the history of geomagnetism in India. There are interesting pasts for every scientific endeavors being pursued today. Even though geomagnetism is a centuries old subject of research, still this is an active subject of research, amazing and so fantastic! Every geomagnetic observatory has a story to tell you.
1826 was an important year in that the East India Company established the Colaba observatory in Bombay (now Mumbai). Its original purpose was astronomical observations and time keeping. In 1841 Arthur Bedford Orlebar, an Astronomy professor in Bombay, started meteorological and geomagnetic measurements at the Colaba Observatory. Initial observations were made manually, but in 1845 after the introduction of self-recording photographic magnetometer by Charles Brooke, the magnetic measurements at Colaba was also upgraded. This instrument was installed in Colaba Observatory in 1871 when Charles Chambers became the director of the observatory.

After the death of Charles Chambers,  Dr. Nanabhoy Ardeshir Framji Moos became the director in 1896, who was the first Indian director of the Observatory. During his period as the director, the Observatory got world-wide fame.

N.A.F. Moos

In 1900, the British Indian government decided to electrify tram service in Bombay and it was a threat to the magnetic observations at Colaba. Dr. N.A.F. Moos found an alternative place at Alibaug, 30km away from Bombay. The observations were carried out both at Colaba and at Alibaug for two years from 1904 to 1906, and it was confirmed that both the stations gave the same observations.

In 1971, the Colaba-Alibaug observatories were converted into an autonomous research organization called the Indian Institute of Geomagnetism (IIG). Till then it was part of IMD, the Indian Meteorological Department. At present, the IIG runs over ten observatories acrosss India.