2012 - 2015
In 2012, IASB-BIRA was selected for a small amount of funding to start cooperation with India. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is planning to send an instrument that resembles NOMAD to Mars in 2014 and was looking for collaborators with experience in radiative transfer models for Mars. A first meeting took place after the International COSPAR conference in July 2012 in Mysore.
Further to this positive interaction, more funding was requested to allow more interactive interchange. The BeMind proposal was approved and will allow more face to face meetings in India and Belgium. We hope to have students from India participate in NOMAD calibration experiments and to be able to test NOMAD pipeline on PRISM data after launch!
8-10 May 2013 - A BeMInd meeting took place in Bangalore in May 2013. This was the First ISPA workshop (Infrared Spectroscopy of Planetary Atmospheres) jointly organized by ISRO and BISA. IASB-BIRA researchers presented the Planetary Aeronomy activities of the Institute while their Indian colleagues presented their space activities. Two 'hands-on' workshops were held on how to use the SOIR/VEX data and the ASIMUT-ALVL software.
May 2014 - The next meeting organized within the BeMInd project will take place at the Kodaikanal solar observatory in India. The 2d ISPA workshop will be again organized jointly between IASB-BIRA and Indian scientists from ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) and IIA (Indian Institute for Astronomy).
June 2014 - Finally, the 2014 meeting was organized once more at Bangolare at the ISITE site of ISRO. The agenda comprised 3 full days of presentations, mainly from Indian researchers on Venus and the possibility to build a next Venus mission ! The last 2 days of the week were reserved for 'Hands on': one day on ASIMUT and How to use the SOIR data; the second day: same for VMC and VIRTIS data, plus a very interesting First Course on radar telemetry.
