ISRO, IIT-Bhubaneswar sign MoU to advance coastal research
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Bhubaneswar: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bhubaneswar have signed an MoU to foster collaborative research and development, PTI reported, citing an official.
The National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC) of ISRO and IIT-Bhubaneswar signed the agreement here on October 17, and the official statement was issued on Friday, he said.
The partnership focuses on assessing physical and biogeochemical oceanic processes and shoreline change dynamics along the western Bay of Bengal, the release said.
“The pilot phase will involve mapping and analysing nearshore dynamics from the Sundarbans delta to northern Andhra Pradesh, with potential extension to other Indian coastal regions...” it said.
Meanwhile, in a landmark scientific breakthrough ISRO announced that its lunar orbiter Chandrayaan-2 has made the first-ever observation of the effects of Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) from the Sun on the Moon’s exosphere, IANS reported.
The observation was made using the Chandra’s Atmospheric Composition Explorer-2 (CHACE-2) instrument onboard the orbiter.
During a rare solar event on May 10, 2024, a series of CMEs impacted the Moon, leading to a significant increase in the total pressure of the dayside lunar exosphere — the extremely thin atmosphere surrounding the Moon.
ISRO scientists reported that the number density of neutral atoms and molecules in the exosphere increased by more than an order of magnitude, confirming theoretical predictions that had never before been validated through direct observation.
The Moon’s exosphere, classified as a surface boundary exosphere, is highly sensitive to solar activity due to the absence of a global magnetic field. The CME event enhanced the liberation of atoms from the lunar surface, temporarily altering the Moon’s atmospheric conditions.
ISRO said the findings not only deepen scientific understanding of lunar space weather but also have implications for future lunar missions and the design of human habitats on the Moon.