Down to Earth

The Indian Institute of Geomagnetism,which functions as an observatory and data analysis centre,is the only one in the country studying the geomagnetic field of the earth,and one of the five World Data Centres in the field....

Way down,at the bottom of the globe,where the Indian subcontinent broke away from Antarctica some 120 million years ago,a new research base for India is going to be constructed. By 2012,nearly 17 Indian scientists and logicists would be posted at this base to carry out studies on geomagnetic and electromagnetic fields,space weather,crustal deformation and occurrence of solar storms, meteorology,oceanography,etc.

The station,named Bharati,in the Larsemann Hills basesituated at 76 degrees east longitude and 29 degrees south latitudefalls in the Auroral zone,which witnesses celestial display of colours due to the interaction of particles from outside the earths atmosphere with atoms of the upper atmosphere. The participating scientists from different disciplines are sponsored by the National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research NCAOR,Goa. Among them are scientists of the Geological Survey of India,the Meteorological Department and the Indian Institute of Geomagnetism IIG.

Tucked away in a corner of the Kalamboli Highway,on the Mumbai-Goa road,is the sprawling campus of IIG,which functions under the Department of Science and Technology. The institute is the only one in India working on the earths geomagnetic field,a force that facilitates life on the planet. With an exhaustive body of work,an exclusive team of experts and vast volumes of research journals,IIG today is one of the five World Data Centres for geomagnetismthe other centres are located in Japan,the UK,the US and Denmark.

Established by the East India Company in 1823 as a centre for astronomical observation and time keeping in Colaba,and in 1841 flagged for geomagnetic and meteorological observation,this observatory was shifted to Alibaug in 1900 when electric trams were introduced in Mumbai and it was found that the electromagnetic noise they generated was interfering with the institutes research. In 1971,the Indian Institute of Geomagnetism was constituted from the Colaba and Alibaug magnetic observatories. In 2002,the institutes headquarters was moved to Navi Mumbai and modernised.

According to Professor Archana Bhattacharyya,director of IIG,IIG has a rich database of magnetic observation,going back to the 1800s,when hourly observations were written by hand. We have digitised and preserved all this data.

The institute today functions as an observatory and data analysis centre,studying upper atmosphere,space weather and solid earth geomagnetism. Its activities include establishing and maintaining magnetic observatory networks,ground and satellite magnetic data investigations,radar probing,studying of the ionosphere and crustal deformation using signals from GPS satellites,space weather predictions,seismological research and study of lithosphere through ground,aero,satellite and marine magnetic anomalies.

Ajay Dhar,a technology officer with IIG,who has been participating in the Department of Defence-Ministry of Earth Sciences-organised Antarctic expedition since 1985,said,From the time when we developed our first research station,Dakshin Gangotri,and began serious geomagnetic research in 1983,our research now is more sophisticated,with devices like imaging riometers for Ionospheric studies and more intensive observation and data collection.

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IIG has 11 magnetic observatories across the country. Journals and volumes published by IIG as well as books on the subject are stored systematically in its two-storied library. The collection runs into 20,000-plus,said a professor.