Director’s Foreword The discovery of presence of water molecules in lunar to ISRO for the forthcoming Chandrayaan-2 mission. PRL surface soils and rocks was a landmark achievement of the is also continuing its efforts to enhance research in Planetary Chandrayaan-1 mission that received global acclaim. Sciences in the country by supporting and nurturing Association of PRL in the study that culminated in this research programme at various academic and research major scientific result has made the last year a very eventful institutes and universities through the ISRO sponsored one for us. The Chandrayaan-1 mission has yielded a wealth PLANEX program. of new data on lunar landform, mineralogy, chemistry and Scientific activities conducted at PRL during the year yielded radiation environment that are being analyzed by eleven a significant number of new results. Some of these are science teams across the globe. New findings from these outlined in the section on “Scientific Highlights”. The studies were presented by the science teams at a “Science” section covers detail reports of scientific activities Chandrayaan-1 Science Meet organized at PRL early this carried out by the different research divisions that include year. These findings have revealed new facets of lunar Astronomy and Astrophysics, Solar Physics, Planetary science and are providing newer insights about our nearest Sciences, Space and Atmospheric Sciences, Geosciences Solar System neighbour. The Chandrayaan-1 mission, in and Theoretical Physics. Several young scientists with which PRL played a key role, has placed India in a pre- strong academic credentials have joined PRL as faculty eminent position in the Global Planetary Exploration scene. members during the year. A Computational Physics group The pre-mature termination of Chandrayaan-1 mission did was also formed to ensure efficient utilization of the recently affect some of the planned scientific objectives. The High commissioned cluster computational facility. Energy X-ray Spectrometer, developed jointly by PRL and As parts of the 11th five year plan activities, several the ISRO Satellite Center, did perform as expected. However, experimental facilities have been established during the year. the thermal constraints experienced during the mission These include a Multi-collector inductively-coupled plasma reduced its operation time and the data collected were not mass spectrometer for isotopic studies of terrestrial and sufficient to make definitive conclusions. Nonetheless, the planetary materials, an Aerosol time of flight mass activities in the field of Planetary Exploration at PRL are spectrometer for physical and chemical characteristics of growing steadily and several proposals have been submitted single aerosol particles, a Stable isotope mass spectrometer 1 for terrestrial and oceanic studies and a computer cluster Resonance Dating, SERC School on Atomic and Molecular for advanced computational work. The Multi-Application Physics, and the Sixth Chandrayaan-1 Science Meet. The Solar Telescope (MAST) is anticipated to be commissioned colloquium and divisional seminar activities have been at the Udaipur Solar Observatory by early 2011. continued with vigour and apart from PRL faculty, 24 Infrastructure upgrade at the observatory site to house scientists from within the country and abroad were invited MAST is nearing completion. to present their scientific work in PRL colloquium series. Prof. Larry Ramsey of the Pennsylvania State University, Design and engineering specifications of the Space USA, visited PRL during early 2010 as K. R. Ramanathan Instrumentation facility, that will support development of Professor. space-borne payloads for studies in the areas of Planetary Exploration, Space and Atmospheric Sciences and As a part of Human Resource Development efforts, forty Astronomy, have been finalized and construction will M.Sc. students and fifty B.Tech. students carried out commence shortly. Several in house activities in the area project work at PRL under the guidance of academic and of advanced techniques have yielded very good results. technical faculty during their summer vacation. PRL also These include, successful demonstration of adaptive optics conducted the Sixth UN Post-graduate Course of the Centre system for studies of sunspot activities and realization of for Space Science & Technology Education in Asia and a detection capability of a few meter per second in radial the Pacific (2009-10) in Space Sciences. Initiatives to velocity excursions of sun like stars using the Echelle increase interactions with school students in and around spectrograph, to be used for the search of exoplanets. Ahmedabad have been continued through regular visits of students to PRL and interaction with Faculty members. The total strength of faculty, post-doctoral fellow and The scope of the Science day activities was enhanced by research scholar is now close to one hundred and fifty and organizing regional meets across Gujarat where PRL faculty sustained endeavours to increase this number in the coming interacted with students and selecting nearly 200 out of years will continue. Research conducted during the year more than two thousand students, representing schools resulted in publication of 129 papers in high impact peer from all over the state, who were invited for the final meet reviewed journals, and 70 papers were published in the on Science day at PRL. Talented students were offered Proceedings of conferences. PRL faculty members authored scholarship and other incentives based on their 18 invited reviews and edited two conference proceedings. performances in the events during the Science day. PRL Eight research scholars have completed their Ph.D. studies scientists also carried out coordinated activities, in during the year. association with school and college students, at several Recognition of the scientific work carried out by the faculty centers spread over the states of Gujarat and Madhya members and research scholars at PRL has come from both Pradesh, for the observation of shadow bands during the international and national academic forums. These include long duration total solar eclipse in 2009. Progressive use fellowship of National Science Academy, Honorary of Hindi, particularly in administrative areas, is being Fellowship of the Geological Society of London, INSA pursued and realization of a bilingual PRL website is targeted Young Scientist Medal, Krishnan Medal of Indian within the coming year. Geophysical Union, Goyal Prize for Physics, Membership The PLANEX and RESPOND programmes of ISRO, of International Commissions, Adjunct and Honorary administered by PRL, are progressing well. The PLANEX Professorships, J. C. Bose National fellowship and programme is aimed at fostering growth of research in membership of Editorial Board of reputed journals. Eleven Planetary Sciences and allied fields in the country, while research scholars and young scientists were recognized the RESPOND programme supports research in the fields for their work and were recipient of various national and of Atmospheric and Space Sciences and in Astronomy and international awards. I look forward to see this trend continue Astrophysics. Nearly fifty research groups in the country in the coming years with hope and anticipation. are being supported currently by these two programmes. Several Conferences/Workshops/Schools were held at PRL Workshop on Planetary Sciences as well discussion during the year. These include the International Workshop meetings to formulate Science plans for future planetary on High Energy Physics Phenomenology, The Second Asia- missions to Moon and Mars were also organized as a part Pacific Conference on Luminescence and Electron Spin of PLANEX programme. 2 The dedication and hard work of all the members of PRL In conclusion, I would urge all PRL members to continue have led to a very successful and productive year for PRL to work with dedication and strive to further enhance the and I thank and applaud all my scientific, technical, reputation of PRL as a major research center with a strong administrative colleagues and other members at PRL for international credibility. I would like to thank the Chairman, their sincerity and devotion. The anticipation is high and Council of Management, PRL, and all the other members there exists areas of concerns and we need to strive even of the council for their sage advice, wise counsel that harder to fully justify the unbounded confidence reposed helped in smooth running of PRL and also for their support on us by the Department of Space in terms of support in implementation of several new academic and received over the years. PRL needs to think ahead and administrative initiatives. formulate new and more challenging science objectives and chalk out appropriate plans and programmes to be pursued during the next five year plan. J. N. Goswami Director 3 Science Highlights Astronomy & Astrophysics is not yet hot enough to form a HII region. Molecular hydrogen counterparts are detected in the outflow from • A high optical echelle spectrograph for detecting exo- this star. planets by the radial velocity technique is undergoing commissioning tests at Mt. Abu Observatory. The • Near Infrared lunar occultations from Mt Abu spectrograph has reached a stability level of ~4m/ Observatory of stars in the vicinity of the galactic sec. The stability is expected to improve further centre region have yielded three resolved sources with when installation and fine tuning is complete