Gender diversity in geo-spatial technology and applications disciplines uptake in developing Asian countries – A survey-based competency analysis

Geo-Spatial Technology and Applications (GSTA) contributes significantly to the implementation of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which seeks to ‘leave no one behind’. This study attempts to assess the gender diversity in enrolment in GSTA programmes in developing countries in Asia using data available with the UN-affiliated Regional Centre in India. A survey was also conducted to gauge trainees’ comfort in a complex multi-cultural, multi-linguistic classroom environment. The analysis shows that female participation in short-term courses has been increasing rather steeply over the years (1995–2019). The enrolment has reached 30% in recent years. It is also observed that the female participants have preferred (about 10%) to enrol in physical Science and Technology (ST) -oriented courses such as Remote Sensing and GIS, Satellite Meteorology and Climate Change, and Space and Atmospheric Sciences when compared to electrical Engineering and Technology-oriented Satellite Communications and Global Navigation Satellite Systems courses that would require a strong knowledge of digital signals and systems theory.The survey study with a participation of 150 trainees from 17 countries shows that women trainees have a slight edge by 9% over the male counterparts in learning ST elements of the courses. At sub-regional levels, it is observed that participants from Indian sub-continent countries (ISC) are better by 15% than participants from South-east Asian Countries (SAC) and Central Asian Countries (CAC). As far as the course structure perspective is concerned, there has been a significant difference with 70% of the ISC trainees have found the courses as well-balanced covering equally both technology and applications, while only 36% and 56% of the trainees from SAC and CAC, respectively, have found the course as balanced. Importantly, the survey has revealed that the participants from SAC and CAC have a big challenge in apprehending lectures in English, as reflected by their top scores at 18% and 17%, respectively, compared with the corresponding value of the ISC trainees being 72%. Recommendations are suggested to sustain the female enrolment in long-term GSTA training programmes. Strategies that create family-friendly learning conditions, including joint education programmes involving lead institutions of the participants’ countries, are proposed to facilitate higher female participation. Furthermore, measures such as standardisation of curricula regionally at undergraduate levels and having periodic meetings of trainers are recommended in order to minimise the trainees’ core competency gaps in GSTA disciplines at the regional level.     

Structure of the equatorial lower ionosphere from the Thumba Langmuir probe experiments

A Langmuir probe designed and developed at the Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad has been used on a variety of rockets since 1966 from the Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station, TERLS (8°31'N, 76°52'E, dip.lat. 0°47'S) to study the structure of the equatorial lower ionosphere. Good quality data is available from a set of twenty five rocket flights conducted during the period 1966 to 1978. This data has been obtained using a single standardised instrument at a single location and using a uniform procedure for data reading and analysis, and adopting a calibration procedure to convert the measured probe currents into electron densities which involves a height dependent calibration factor. The data has been used to establish the gross features of the equatorial lower ionosphere under daytime, night time, morning twilight and evening twilight periods.     

Electric field and electron density measurements in the equatorial E-region

A centaure rocket, with payloads of Langmuir probe and Electric field probe, was launched from Thumba (8° 31'N, O° 47'S dip), India on February 12, 1981 at 1057 Hrs IST. The aim of the experiment was to study the role of localised electric fields in the generation of plasma density irregularities through cross field instability and the two-stream instability mechanism. The rocket was launched at a time when Type I irregularities were observed with VHF radar at Thumba.     

The satellite-determined thermal structure of heat low during Indian south-west monsoon season

One of the important climatic features of the south-west (SW) monsoon period in the Indian subcontinent is the appearance of a shallow heat low centred around Pakistan region. The details of this system are not easy to observe, as the region lies mostly over a desert area. However, satellite soundings provide a frequent and synoptic view of the system. We have undertaken a study of the properties of this system through lower level and upper level thermal structure around the region using NOAA temperature soundings. The results for the months of April, May and June in the year 1982 are presented here. The temperature changes in the region are studied in relation to the date of the onset of SW-monsoon and its activity in the Indian sub-continent.     

A payload for the study of electric fields and electron density in the equatorial region

A rocket borne payload for simultaneous measurement of the electric field along and perpendicular to the rocket spin axis and the electron density in the medium was developed and flown from Thumba (8° 31′N, 0° 47′S dip) onboard two Centaure rockets for the study of plasma dynamcis in the equatorial E-region. The arrangement of sensors in this payload allows near continuous measurements of some of these parameters to be made.     

Digital processing of spacelab imagery

A digital technique for processing and analyzing OH-cloud photographs to be retrieved from the ISRO-CNES collaborative experiment on the first Spacelab is presented and discussed here. The method adopted for processing the photographs incorporates into it the following major steps (i) digitising the OH photographs, (ii) applying corrections for vignetting, geometric distortions and brightness variations and (iii) superposing the geographic coordinates on the linearised OH photograph.     

Microwave specular scattering response of soil texture at X-band

Soil texture is an important soil parameter that is useful for meteorology, climatology, hydrology, ecology, etc. Therefore, it is important to classify soil based on soil texture (i.e., sand, silt and clay). A lot of studies with radar remote sensing have been carried out to estimate soil moisture and surface roughness, but less attention has been given to study the effect of individual soil texture on radar scattering, especially in specular direction. The main aim of this paper is to check the behavior of specular scattering with change in soil texture. This effect has also been analyzed in presence of soil moisture and surface roughness. Scattering coefficient has been retrieved for various soil texture fields with indigenously designed X-band bistatic scatterometer for a range of incidence angles (from 30° to 70° in steps of 10°) in both like polarizations, i.e., HH-polarization and VV-polarization. Observations were made at 10 GHz frequency. Four different fields were considered on the basis of soil texture variations; especially changes in sand percentage were made. Roughness (smooth soil to 1.4 cm rms surface height) and moisture (dry soil to 0.21 cm³ cm⁻³ volumetric soil moisture) conditions of these fields were varied for observations. Strong change in specular scattering coefficient is observed by changing the sand percentage in soil for HH-polarization, while in case of VV-polarization a lesser change is observed. Also a high change in specular scattering coefficient is noticed once moisture is added to the soil. It is difficult to observe the change in specular scattering coefficient with change in soil texture when surface is considered as rough. Therefore, it is important to minimize the roughness effect while observing the texture with specular scattering. For this purpose, polarization study was carried out to see how polarization can be helpful to minimize the roughness effect. The effect of soil texture on copolarization ratio is critically analyzed, and it is observed that for higher incidence angle (50°), the distinction in soil texture fields are clearly observable on the basis of copolarization ratio. This type of study will be helpful in near future to design the bistatic radar system for soil parameter monitoring, especially for cartwheel satellite system.