Centenary of URSI and the

Finnish Member Committee

Tampere University –18 October 2019

XXXV Finnish URSI Convention on Radio Science

Ari Sihvola & Henrik Wallén

President & Secretary of the Finnish Committee

Aalto University

is a non-governmental and non-profit

organisation under the International

Council for Science, responsible for

stimulating and co-ordinating, on an

international basis, studies, research,

applications, scientific exchange, and

communication in the fields of radio

science

• to encourage the adoption of common methods of

measurement, and the intercomparison and standardisation of

the measuring instruments used in scientific work;

• to encourage and promote international activity in radio science

and its applications, for the benefit of humanity;

• to stimulate and co-ordinate studies of: • the scientific aspects of telecommunications using electromagnetic

waves, guided and unguided;

• the generation, emission, radiation, propagation, reception, and

detection of fields and waves, and the processing of the signals

embedded in them.

• to represent radio science to the general public, and to public

and private organisations.

– Commission A Electromagnetic Metrology

– Commission B Fields and Waves

– Commission C Radiocommunication Systems

and Signal Processing

– Commission D Electronics and Photonics

– Commission E Electromagnetic Environment and

Interference

– Commission F Wave Propagation and

Remote Sensing

– Commission G Ionospheric Radio and

Propagation

– Commission H Waves in Plasmas

– Commission J Radio Astronomy

– Commission K Electromagnetics in

Biology and Medicine

Centenary

Celebrations

• 1914: Commission provisoire

international de télégraphie sans

fil scientifique

• 1919: Union international de

radiotélégraphie scientifique

• 1st General Assembly: July 1922

Brussels

• Belgium

• France

• United Kingdom

• USA

• Various centennial celebratory

events from 2020–2023.

The founding fathers in 1914

ISC (International

Science Council)

• The International Science Council (ISC) is a non-

governmental organization with a unique global

membership that brings together 40 international

scientific Unions and Associations and over 140 national

and regional scientific organizations including

Academies and Research Councils.

• 2018: a merger of the International Council for Science

(founded in 1931) and the International Social Science

Council (founded in 1952)

• 1919–1931 International Research Council — inaugural

meeting in Brussels, preparations for foundation of ICSU

to include Scientific Unions as Members.

Early radio science in Finland

• Aleksandr Stepanovich Popov

(1859–1906)

• Karl Ferdinand Lindman

(1874–1952)

1899 !

1914 !

First doctoral theses in radio

science in Finland • 1941: Jouko Pohjanpalo

– Eräs menetelmä moduloidun lähettimen

hyötysuhteen parantamiseksi

• 1955: Pentti Mattila

– Detection of weak periodic signals form noise

• 1960: Martti Tiuri

– Investigations of radio reflections from

satellite-produced ion trails using 100 Mc CW

radar

The Finnish Member Committee

Examples of talk titles from

the first Radio Days (1953)

• Elimination of the background noise when observing the radiowave

emission of stars

• Radio heating in our industry

• Radio engineering in service of surveying science

• The operating distance of radar as a statistical problem

• Determination of the mirror surface of a radar antenna with point feed

• Propagation phenomena of very short and ultrashort radio waves

• Betatron — an electromagnetic accelerator

• Phase comparator

• Linear sweep generators

• A graphical method to determine the optimum noise figure of a microwave

receiver

• Experiments with remote control

• Rationalization in use of the slide rule

Martti Tiuri: Radio Days in 1957

President Vice president Secretary

Viljo Ylöstalo (1952–1959) Jaakko Tuominen (1952–1959)

Pentti Mattila (1952–1968)

Jaakko Tuominen (1959–1965)Jouko Pohjanpalo (1960–1962)

Martti Tiuri (1963–1965)

Martti Tiuri (1966–1990)

Tor Stubb (1966–1975)

Ismo Lindell (1969)

Seppo J. Halme (1970–1971)

Yrjö Sirkeinen (1972–1974)

Ismo Lindell (1975)

Seppo J. Halme (1976–1981) Martti Hallikainen (1976–1981)

Juhani Oksman (1982–1983)Olavi Koistinen (1982)

Ari Sihvola (1982–1983)

Ismo Lindell (1984–1990)

Martti Hallikainen (1984–1989)

Ari Sihvola (1989–1990)

Keijo Nikoskinen (1990)

Ismo Lindell (1991–1996) Martti Hallikainen (1991–1996) Ari Sihvola (1991–1996)

Martti Hallikainen (1997–2005) Ari Sihvola (1997–2005) Juha Hyyppä (1997)

Jaan Praks (1998–2006)

Ari Sihvola (2006–2020)

Erkki Salonen (2006–2014) Liisi Jylhä (2007)

Jaan Praks (2008)

Henrik Wallén (2009–2020)Markku Renfors (2015–2017)

Jaan Praks (2018–2020)

The Finnish Member Committee

Finnish Official Members • A Electromagnetic Metrology

– Antti Manninen

• B Fields and Waves– Ari Sihvola

• C Radiocommunication Systems and Signal Processing– Risto Wichman

• D Electronics and Photonics– Zhipei Sun

• E Electromagnetic Environment and Interference– Sergei Tretyakov

• F Wave Propagation and Remote Sensing– Martti Hallikainen

• G Ionospheric Radio and Propagation– Anita Aikio

• H Waves in Plasmas– Urs Ganse

• J Radio Astronomy– Merja Tornikoski

• K Electromagnetics in Biology and Medicine– Ilkka Laakso

URSI General Assembly 1978

History of ”Radiopäivät” in Finland

I 1953 Helsinki XIII 1987 Oulu XXV 2000 Helsinki (FMI)

II 1955 Helsinki XIV 1988 Otaniemi XXVI 2001 Tampere

III 1957 Helsinki XV 1989 Tampere XXVII 2002 Otaniemi

IV 1960 Helsinki XVI 1990 Kuopio XXVIII 2003 Oulu

V 1964 Helsinki XVII 1991 Turku (ÅA) XXIX 2004 Otaniemi (VTT)

VI 1967 Otaniemi XVIII 1992 Oulu XXX 2006 Sodankylä

VII 1970 Otaniemi XIX 1993 Otaniemi XXXI 2008 Otaniemi

VIII 1973 Otaniemi XX 1994 Sodankylä XXXII 2010 Oulu

IX 1976 Otaniemi XXI 1996 Otaniemi XXXIII 2013 Otaniemi

X 1980 Oulu XXII 1997 Oulu XXIV 2017 Helsinki (HY)

XI 1983 Otaniemi XXIII 1998 Otaniemi XXXV 2019 Tampere

XII 1986 Otaniemi XXIV 1999 Turku (UT)

URSI MISSION STATEMENT

Radio science encompasses the knowledge and study

of all aspects of electromagnetic fields and waves.

The International Union of Radio Science (Union

Radio-Scientifique Internationale), a non-governmental

and non-profit organisation under the International

Council for Science, is responsible for stimulating and

co-ordinating, on an international basis, studies,

research, applications, scientific exchange, and

communication in the fields of radio science.

http://www.ursi.org/ursi_mission.php

The Origins of URSI

• 1919: First General Assembly of International

Research Council

• Founding of the “International Union of Scientific

Radio Telegraphy”

– Stated objective was to promote scientific

studies of radiotelegraphy and to

encourage research requiring international

cooperation in this field

• Creation of Union of Astronomy

• Union of Geodesy & Geophysics

• Union of Mathematics

The Start of URSI

• Commissions in 1922:I. Measurement Methods and Standardization

II. Radio Propagation

• Electromagnetic Field

• Radio Goniometry

III. Atmospheric Disturbances

IV. Liaison with Operators, Practitioners, and Amateurs

From the minutes:“In view of the moral and technical importance of the Commission on Measurement Methods and Standardisation, as well as of the usefulness of its work for the public at large, the Commission should be numbered ONE since it might draw governmental subsidies”

The Start of URSI

1st URSI General Assembly: Brussels, July 1922

• Belgium

• France

• United Kingdom

• USA

Agenda:•Measurements of the EM field

and its variations

•Study of variations in radio

goniometrical measurements

•Study of statics and disturbances

in general measurements

The 1st Resolution of URSI : “At the meeting of Commission I, it was generally agreed that the unit of frequency was identical with the unit of time interval, and that no independent definition should be given. ”