1 / 8

I.U.C.A.F Summer School May / June. 2010

CRAF Committee for Radio Astronomy Frequencies. I.U.C.A.F Summer School May / June. 2010. Expert committee of the European Science Foundation to co-ordinate activities to keep the frequency bands used by radio astronomers protected.

vicki
Download Presentation

I.U.C.A.F Summer School May / June. 2010

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. CRAFCommittee for Radio Astronomy Frequencies I.U.C.A.F Summer School May / June. 2010

  2. Expert committee of the European Science Foundation to co-ordinate activities to keep the frequency bands used by radio astronomers protected. Provides a European Voice for Radio Astronomers and also the European Incoherent Scatter Scientific Association ( EISCAT ) in area of Spectrum Management CRAF is a Sector Member of the ITU-R and has formal observer status within the CEPT .

  3. Brief History In the mid-1980s, threats to radio astronomy were increasing. Plans for a TV transmitter in Lille & at the top of the Eifel Tower in Paris to transmit on Channel 38. Hans Kahlmann, Titus Spoelstra & Willem Baan developed a plan to form a forum of European Radio Astronomers to address problems. Committee on Radio Frequencies of the U.S. National Research Council ( CORF ) had already existed since the 1960s.

  4. A number of ‘not-so-easy’ tasks were undertaken:- • Identified all radio astronomy groups. • Became fully aware of government regulations & the regulatory bodies First Meeting was in Paris in summer 1985, when it became clear that for the group to have any influence, an ‘umbrella’ organisation was required. Discussions with the European Science Foundation (ESF) took place and the rest is history. Hans Kahlmann – First Chairman. Titus Spoelstra – First Secretary. It soon became clear that there was a need for a full-time Spectrum Manager to attend at least some of the large number of meetings that take place. Also need to be able to ‘fight one’s corner’.

  5. Titus Spoelstra became the first in 1997. Funded by a combination of countries & individual observatories. Committee now has over 20 members from the major radio observatories + a few others representing other countries. All do not pay the same. Following pay a ‘full unit’. France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden & the U.K. Other members pay fractions of units, or in one or two cases, nothing. Those that do not pay have no voting rights CRAF meets twice a year

  6. Aims: • To keep radio astronomy bands free of interference • Act as a European voice ( Argue the case for science in Europe to have access to spectrum) • To support related science communities in their need of interference-free passive bands. • To operate at both an administrative & technical level. (e.g. Set up interference monitoring.) • To initiate & encourage scientific studies aimed at reducing interference ‘at source’ , as well as reducing the effects of interference. Examples of studies / work on reducing interference: Wind Turbines; Iridium

  7. 7. Education CRAF Web site, which is maintained by the Spectrum Manager. http://www.craf.eu CRAF Handbook for Radio Astronomy. CRAF Newsletter

More Related