All posts by Benjamin Winkel

Preserving your skies since 1988: CRAF publishes periodic review of the years 2011-2021

The Committee on Radio Astronomy Frequencies (CRAF) is an Expert Committee of the European Science Foundation (ESF). The ESF has several expert committees and every few years, a review of each of them is performed to keep track of the progress, but also provide valuable feedback to the committees from renowned external reviewers related to the field.

The latest CRAF review was done in 2022. The ESF set up a review panel of four leading experts:

  • Dr. Pierre Cox (Review Panel Chair),
    Former Director of IRAM & ALMA,
    Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris, CNRS, France,
  • Markus Dreis,
    ITU-R WP 7C Chair,
    EUMETSAT, Germany,
  • Prof. Hermann Opgenoorth,
    COSPAR Vice-Chair Panel on Space Weather,
    Umea University, Sweden,
  • Prof. Liese van Zee,
    Former Chair of Committee on Radio Frequencies, US National Academies,
    Indiana University Bloomington, USA,

with the mandate of reviewing the activities of CRAF over the period 2011-2021. The panel was specifically asked to comment on the activities and achievements of CRAF and to provide recommendations for the next period, taking into account the CRAF mandate as well as the European and global research landscape.

This self-evaluation report was provided to the review panel members in March 2022, and the panel members also participated in a CRAF plenary meeting in May 2022. In addition, interviews with several CRAF representatives were conducted. The review panel presented their findings in a report to the Committee in August 2022.

CRAF and its Stakeholders Forum would like to sincerely thank the Review Panel for their excellent work, and the detailed and constructive feedback, which required a large amount of time and effort. CRAF also wish to thank the European Science Foundation (in particular Nicolas Walter and Eliana Legoux) for the most professional management and organisation of the whole process and for creating an inspiring and conducive atmosphere.

One of the recommendations of the Reviewers was to produce a public version of the self-evaluation report, as it was thought to provide valuable information to the radio-astronomical community. Thus, we have prepared a slightly modified version (without budget/personnel sections) and are happy to share this with you:

https://arxiv.org/abs/2310.13407

 

Norwegian Mapping Authority, Kartverket, becomes full CRAF member

By Leif Morten Tangen and Michael Lindqvist

The Norwegian Mapping Authority, Kartverket, became a full member of CRAF in June, 2023. The observatory, operated by Kartverket, is located at Brandal laguna in Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard. It is an internationally established fundamental geodetic VLBI station, which includes two 13.2 m telescopes inaugurated 2018, with receivers covering the band 2-14 GHz. Once fully operational, they will be part of the world’s first core sites within the Global Geodetic Observing System (GGOS), co-locating the four space geodetic techniques: Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI), Satellite Laser Ranging (SLR), Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) and Doppler Orbitography and Radiopositioning Integrated by Satellite (DORIS). As such, the observatory will be a fundamental part of a network of stations which define the global geodetic reference frame, and will be crucial to realise GGOS’s ambitious goals of 1 mm accuracy and 0.1 mm/yr stability.

The Observatory has a special protection in Norwegian law for RFI, “Fribruksforskriften“. It states in § 1. “Local area of ​​operation” that “The regulation does not apply to the use of frequencies in the 2 GHz-32 GHz range in the geographical area within a radius of 20 km from the center of Ny-Ålesund. The regulation nevertheless applies to frequency use in this area for mandatory maritime and aeronautical safety-related equipment on board vessels and aircraft.”