Historical Background of CAR
The Centre for Atmospheric Research (CAR) is the Research and Development activity Centre of NASRDA that is committed to research & capacity building in atmospheric sciences under the support of the Federal Government of Nigerian through the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology.
The Centre is a spin-off from the Centre for Basic Space Science, Nsukka. CAR received an executive approval to function in capacity of a full-fledged autonomous Centre in the month of January, 2013 as the seventh (7th) activity Centre of NASRDA. CAR is located within the campus of Kogi State University, Anyigba, Kogi State. Since its inception, The Center has received about 6200 visitors from overseas and within the country for different research purposes and has gone on to be a trail blazer in the field of atmospheric research. The Center has 28 weather stations under the TRODAN project, 4 GPS stations for Space Weather monitoring, 2 lightning monitor facility, all-sky Optical Imager, 8 indigenously made magnetometers ,1 AMBER, 3 MAGDAS, I scintillation monitor, 1 Fabry Perrot Interferometer, I SOFIE, 1 Ozone monitor, HF radio signal monitor, to mention a few, under the visionary and result-driven cerebral leadership of her 1st substantive and incumbent Director/Chief Executive Officer, Professor Babatunde Rabiu.
CAR Mandates
The Centre for Atmospheric Research is committed to research and capacity building in the atmospheric and related sciences. CAR shall be dedicated to understanding the atmosphere (the air around us) and the interconnected processes that make up the Earth system, from the ocean floor through the ionosphere to the Sun’s core. The NASRDA Centre for Atmospheric Research provides research, facilities, and services for the atmospheric and Earth sciences communities.
Furthermore, NASRDA’s Centre for Atmospheric Research is to provide sound education, research and knowledge in the following areas:
- Lower atmosphere
- Upper Atmosphere (Ionospheric/ Magnetospheric physics),
- Atmospheric chemistry and environmental science
- Geomagnetism,
- Environmental research
- Tropospheric and transionospheric radio propagation research
- Solar physics, solar-terrestrial interactions, and space weather
- Human space technology initiative
- Space debris
Divisions of CAR
The R & D divisions of CAR is made up of the following specialized units:
- Lower Atmosphere (LA): The LA unit concentrates on research that has to do with the lower portion of the atmosphere, right from the sea surface through the entire spectrum of the troposphere.
- Upper Atmosphere (UA): The UA unit focuses on the study of the ionosphere and magnetosphere of the Earth and other planets.
- Solar Terrestrial Physics (STP): The STP unit deals with solar physics, solar terrestrial interactions, and space weather (sun and heliosphere).
- Atmospheric Chemistry: Environmental Pollution and Atmospheric Chemistry
- Environmental Research: environmental research, environmental impact assessment,
- Space Research Initiative (SRI): The SRI unit deals with Human space technology Initiative – medical geography, Magneto-biology, space experiments as it affect agriculture, medicine, vaccine and development, etc. Space debris.
- Engineering and Technical Support (ETS): The ETS focuses on instrumentation development, maintenance of atmospheric monitoring facilities, development of equipment from locally available materials and imported sensors.
- Information Communication Technology (ICT): The ICT unit is saddled with the responsibility of software development for atmospheric research, telemetry, data portal management.
- Oceanography unit
Operations
CAR is envisioned to operate in 3 modes: Observation, Research, Capacity building/Training/Outreach
