Written by Vincenza Tornatore
The Institut de Radioastronomie Millimétrique (IRAM) – Université Grenoble Alpes in Grenoble, France will host a IAU-CPS/CRAF Radio Astronomy Workshop on 2nd and 3rd October 2025. The aims of the meeting are to bring together those working on the impact of satellite constellations on radio astronomy for discussions and knowledge-sharing; to document current activities and understanding of the issues; and to reach consensus on next steps.
The workshop will be fully hybrid. All CPS and CRAF members and other interested people are welcome to attend. Registration is free, online attendees can register at any time.
The meeting format is focused on discussions and shared learning activities, with minimal presentations. Each topic will have a 15-minute introduction, followed by short contributed talks (up to 5 minutes), and then a long discussion session.
Topics will include:
- Active transmissions at Ku/Ka-band
- Non-terrestrial networks (Direct-2-Cell, Direct-2-Device)
- Emerging threats from high frequency active transmissions
- Unintended radiation (radio, infrared)
- Satellite position accuracy
A visit to the NOEMA observatory will be organized on Wednesday the 4th of June for physical participants of the workshop.
In addition, the CRAF Expert Committee annual plenary meeting will be hosted at IRAM from June, 5-6, 2025. The meeting is organized with open sessions for CRAF Members, Observers, Global Representatives and Guests, and few closed sessions on CRAF matters for CRAF members only.
During the meeting presentations on France radio telescopes NOEMA and NenuFAR and French radio astronomy and spectrum management activities will be given, other presentations will be devoted to newly emerging threats to mm/sub-mm astronomy (frequencies above ~70 GHz) with a focus on satellite constellations and short range devices.
Last but not least, CRAF’s teams will report on their work in the past semester on topics such as
- satellite constellations
- geodetic VLBI
- cell-phone networks
- RFI monitoring
- outreach activities
- spectrum engineering
- space weather and lunar-astronomy protection
Feel free to contact us, if you are interested to attend.