Profile

HONORS

Recipient of the Young Scientist Award and participant at the XXVIIth General Assembly of the International Union of Radio Science (URSI GA 2002) held at Maastricht, Netherlands during August 17-24, 2002.
Recipient of Erasmus Mundas Staff Mobility Scholarship of European Union at Frederick University, Cyprus during June-September 2015

Research Facilities

The present area of research interest involves studying Space Weather impact on satellite-based communication and navigation system which may lead to satellite signal outages and develop life-critical situations for high dynamic platforms like aircrafts. The location of Calcutta is geophysically very important, being situated virtually underneath the northern crest of the Equatorial Ionization Anomaly (EIA) in the Indian longitude sector.
I am presently implementing India's first Stratosphere Troposphere (ST) Radar at 53MHz as the Principal Investigator at the Ionosphere Field Station, Haringhata of the University of Calcutta.
Another major research position presently undertaken by me is Coordinator of an International Team Project on GNSS at the International Space Science Institute (ISSI), Bern, Switzerland (http://www.issibern.ch/teams/mtconese/)
The Space Weather and Satellite Beacon Group of the Institute of Radio Physics and Electronics presently operates
1. (a) Dual-Frequency GPS receiver at Calcutta and
(b) GNU spaced-aerial receiver at VHF under collaboration with US Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) under the global SCINtillation Network Decision Aid (SCINDA) program of US Air Force at the Ionosphere Field Station (IFS) of the University of Calcutta, located about 50km north of the city in a low radio frequency interference region.
2. Event Driven Data Acquisition System (EDAS) under collaboration with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Colorado State University for monitoring and studies of the space plasma impact on multiple constellations of satellite navigation signals.
3. Connected Autonomous Space Environment Sensor (CASES) Global Positioning System (GPS) software-defined receivers developed for ionospheric scintillation studies at Calcutta
4. Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS) triple-band Navigation with Indian Constellation (NavIC) receiver at Institute of Radio Physics and Electronics and Ionosphere Field Station (IFS) of the University of Calcutta for pilot-level tests under collaboration with Space Application Centre (SAC), Ahmedebad
5. Multi-constellation multi-frequency GPS-GLONASS-GALILEO receivers at (a) Calcutta (b) Department of Physics, North Bengal University and (c) Ghani Khan Choudhury Institute of Engineering and Technology, Malda for application of spatial diversity, frequency diversity and interoperability of constellations during adverse ionospheric conditions to reduce satellite signal outages
6. Coherent Radio Beacon Experiment (CRABEX) receiver at Ionosphere Field Station, Haringhata under collaboration with Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), ISRO
7. Proton Precession Magnetometer for measuring Earth’s geomagnetic field intensity considered a proxy indicator of Space Weather events
8. Ionospheric TEC and Scintillation Monitor at the (a) Ionosphere Field Station, Haringhata and (b) Sri Sai University, Palampur, H.P.
9. Research collaborations with Centre of Astronomy, IIT-Indore in the fields of radio astronomy observations, ionospheric studies and joint Ph.D. supervision

Research Project

1. Principal Investigator and Convenor of ST Radar Facility at University of Calcutta funded by Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), Department of Science and Technology (DST), Govt. of India
2. Coordinator of International Team GNSS project Multi-technique characterization of near-Earth space environment at the International Space Science Institute (ISSI), Switzerland
3. Principal Investigator of research project Impact of Equatorial Ionospheric Characteristics on Distributed GNSS Accuracies funded by Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), Department of Science and Technology (DST), Govt. of India

ST Radar Project

Prof. Ashik Paul is implementing eastern and north-east India's first ST Radar at 53MHz at Ionosphere Field Station, Haringhata of University of Calcutta.