The idea is to perform, in the Indian subcontinent, a large-scale experiment on the propagation of radio waves for communications in the Ka band.
The purpose of this agreement, signed within the context of the recent official visit to France of the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is to carry out test campaigns on propagation effects in the Ka-band, which is a frequency range that is used in particular for satellite Internet, and to process and analyse their results. The Indian satellite GSAT-14’s available beacons will be used, as well as radiometric and meteorological data. This is a first for an experiment on this scale, conducted on the Indian subcontinent, in this frequency band and in the tropics and equatorial regions.
In addition to its mission of training ISRO engineers in the operation of experimental equipment, ONERA will process the data acquired by the CNES in India as from the second half of 2015. R&T studies will then be conducted to complement these experiments, in order to model the measured propagation. This mission will end with a workshop organised together with Indian partner laboratories and with the installation of ONERA equipment at the Shillong site.
This collaboration between ONERA and ISRO is part of a long-term scientific relationship, with many exchanges and joint missions in India and France since 2004. The first ISRO-CNES-ONERA tripartite agreement was signed in 2006.
