This story is from September 30, 2016

New portal brings Isro's Astrosat data to public

<arttitle><p>New portal brings Isro's Astrosat data to public</p></arttitle>
PUNE: A year after the successful launch of India's first multi-wavelength observational satellite Astrosat, the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) on Thursday formally unveiled a portal displaying data sent by the satellite for general public.
The Astrosat Support Cell is a joint venture between Isro and Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA), which also designed one of the payloads, instruments which collect and transmit data, on the satellite.

Various stakeholders of the programme met at the IUCAA on Thursday for a review of the results received from the payloads currently on the Astrosat.
The Astrosat has five main payloads, mainly focused on observing ultra-violet bands, hard and soft X-rays- its sources and binaries, stellar coronae, and clusters of faraway galaxies, known as quasars and blazars. The observations may help in understanding phenomena like the supernova, or the fate of galaxies.
Apart from the IUCAA, the payloads were developed by institutions like the Tata Institute for Fundamental Research (TIFR), the University of Leicester, and the Canadian Space Agency.
"A decision to establish such a platform was taken in May," Isro and IUCAA officials said. Besides providing data, the support cell will also help researchers. to effectively use the data from the satellite for research.
"We signed the memorandum of understanding with Isro in May. The platform is in lines with the one that US space body
Nasa has put in place which publishes raw data for the general public. While the portal has some tools, we are encouraging researchers to develop fresh tools for the purpose," IUCAA dierctor Somak Raychaudhury said.
Isro officials said the organisation had come in the way of dissemination of such data for educational institutions, and added that it is ready to provide the platform for any systems that astronomers want to work on. "It has often been seen that Isro has a tendency to control access, which has in the past hindered easy dissemination of data to educational institutions. This support cell is an effort to change that,""" Isro chairman AS Kiran Kumar said.
However, the entire raw data will be available only after a certain proprietary or so-called "lock-in" period.
"The data is currently available to the Indian scientific community in certain institutions. After the lock-in period, which is expected to run for about a year, the data will be made available to all," he said.
Isro has also started its observational cycle for the Astrosat, after initial phases of operation. The upcoming cycle, starting on October 1, will run till March 2017. In these cycles, educational institutions are invited to book a limited amount of the 5,503 kilo-seconds (ksecs) of time available to study the data received from Astrosat. , that after a detailed proposal stating the purpose and required data is submitted. Officials said the initiative was met with "tremendous" response.
"We have received 111 proposals for observation in this cycle, 103 of which are from Indians. The time available during this period is 5,503 ksecs, but the time requested through all these proposals is as much as 31,130 ksecs, which means the time has been over-subscribed by more than five times. The proposals will be evaluated and time will be awarded by an independent committee," said S Seetha, programme director at the office of space science programmes, Isro.
The programme's officials conceded that the results could have been better if the payloads had better capabilities, but added that the mission and the payloads have been working fine since they were put into orbit.
"Till now, the mission has been working fine, beyond our wildest dreams. This was our first observational satellite venture, and it took more than a decade to realise it, but the results have been good, so far. Some of the payloads are the largest and the most efficient of their kind ever built, so we have received many interesting results. But this is just the first year, and we are constantly monitoring the progress and data received from the payloads," said AR Rao, from the Tata Institute for Fundamental Research, engaged in the Astrosat project.
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