International Workshop on Seismo-Electromagnetics and Atmospheric Science (IWSE-AS 2010) 16 - 18 November, 2010
An International workshop on Seismo-Electromagnetics and Atmospheric Science (IWSE-AS 2010) was organized by the Department of Physics of the Faculty of engineering and technology, R.B.S. College, Bichpuri, Agra during 16-18 November, 2010. The venue of the workshop was hotel Marina (formerly Holiday Inn) and Faculty of Engineering and Technology, R.B.S. College, at Bichpuri, Agra. About 82 participants including 11 foreigners and 71 Indians attended the workshop. The foreign scientists came from Japan, Russia, Taiwan, Kazakhstan and China whereas Indian participants came from all parts of the country, i.e. from, Visakhapattanam to Jammu, and from, Mumbai to Guwhati. About 100 abstracts were received out of which 80 were presented in oral and poster sessions of the workshop.
Inauguration
The inauguration of the workshop was held on 16 Nov, 2010 at 10 AM with Prof. B.M. Reddy, Eminent Ionospheric Scientist and former Head Radio Science Division, National Physical Laboratory, New Delhi as the Chief Guest. Other dignitaries on the dais were Dr. H.N. Srivastava, Ex. Additional Director General, India Meteorological Department, New Delhi, Prof. M. Hayakawa, Chairman IWSE, Dr. A.P. Singh, Director and Chairman LOC, Faculty of Engineering and Technology, R.B.S. College, Bichpuri, Agra.
All the dignitaries emphasized the importance of the workshop in Indian context and extended good wishes for its fruitful conclusion. At this juncture, Dr. O.P. Singh, Convener of the workshop, informed the audience that this was the third workshop of its kind held in India. The previous two were also organized by R.B.S. College during 19-21 December, 2000 and 20-22 November, 2006. From the inputs received during the three workshops he presented a picture of exponential growth of Seismo-electromagnetic studies in the country.
Presentation of papers
All the abstracts were categorized in three groups which included invited papers, contributed papers, and poster papers. The oral presentations were made in six different sessions,
- Session I: Crustal deformation and prediction of earthquakes
- Session II: Geochemical and thermal anomalies related to earthquakes
- Session III: Satellite based studies of earthquake precursors
- Session IV: Ionospheric precursors of earthquakes
- Session V: Recent advances in atmospheric science
- Session VI: ULF/VLF/VHF Precursors of earthquakes
The poster presentations were made during 1700-1800 hrs on 17 November, 2010 which included 20-25 presentations each day.
Some of the notable participants and speakers in the workshop included M. Hayakawa (Japan), K.I. Oyama (Taiwan), Y. Hobara (Japan), Y. Ruzhin (Russia), Prof. A. Lozbin (Kazakhstan), Prof. T. D. Kaladze (Georgia), Prof. Li Qinghe (China), Victor Novikov (Russia), Prof. B.M. Reddy (Emeritus Scientist, NGRI, India), Dr. B.R. Arora (Ex- Director, WIHG, Dehradun), Dr. B.K. Rastogi (Director General, ISR, Raisan, Gandhinagar), Dr. H. N. Srivatava (Ex Director General, IMD, New Delhi), etc.
Cultural Program
A cultural program of classical and folk dances was presented by the students of the Faculty of engineering and technology, R.B.S. College, Agra, during 1800-2000 hrs on 17 November, 2010. This program was inaugurated Dr. A.P. Singh, Director, Faculty of Engineering and Technology, R.B.S. College, Bichpuri, Agra, and the prize dsitribution was made by Prof. K.I. Oyama, Taiwan. The cultural programme was appreciated by all the participants and guests. A special appriciation and congratulation was given to the performing students by Dr. B.M.Reddy, noted Ionospheric scientist of the country.
Closing Ceremony
The closing ceremony of the workshop was organised during 1530-1630 hrs on 18 November, 2010 with Prof. M. Hayakawa as cheif guest and Dr. B.M.Reddy, Chairman of the session. During this session , all the Chairmen of the different sessions were invited to make brief presentations about the quality of papers presented in their sessions. This was followed by a general disscusions.
Finally, all the participants applauded the fine arrangement made by local orgasnising committee of the workshop and gave an standing ovation to Dr. O.P Singh, Convener and Prof. Birbal Singh, Co-Convener of the workshop, for discharging the responsibilities of the workshop so systemmatically and succesfully.
ULF Working group meeting
A working group meeting of ULF workers was organised during 1830-2030 hrs on 17 November, 2010 with Prof. M. Hayakawa, Prof. Y. Hobara (Japan), Dr. B.R. Arora (Ex- Director, WIHG, Dehradun), Mr. Gautam Rawat (WIHG, Dehradun), Dr. B.M. Pathan (IIG, Mumbai), Dr. A.K. Sinha (IIG, Mumbai), Prof. A. Lozbin (Kazakhstan), etc. In this meeting all the aspects of ULF precursors were discussed and a campaign mode joint study for finding such precursors was emphasized. The role of ULF precursors in earthquake prediction studies was disscused at large and it was concluded that dedicated efforts are to be made to record clear electromagnetic precursors of earthquakes.
Outcome of the workshop and plan of action for future
This workshop was organised with two basic objectives; first, to invite young scientists from all corners of the country and aprise them with the subject of seismo-electromagnetics and its application in earthquake prediction and second to prepare a common plan of observations and analysis of data among those stations where similar experiments are in progress. The workshop has been sucessful in meeting both the objectives adequately. While a number of young scients from different parts of the country were involved a meeting of senior scientits like Dr. B.R. Arora, Dr. B.M. Reddy, Dr. Birbal Singh, Dr. B.M. Pathan, Dr. S.K. Chakrabarty, Dr. A.K. Sharma, etc. was organised saparetly to prepare a joint plan of action on ULF obsevation and analysis of data. Folloing this meeting Dr. Arora has circulated a draft proposal for action plan which has been summited to the Ministry of Earth Sciences, Government of India New Delhi.
The future plan of action is that all Principal Investigators of projects having common experiments will submit their data online which will be processed at Agra station and result submited to India Meteorological Dept, New Delhi. This excerise is expected to help pridiction of earthquakes in and around the country.