Maris ABELE

abelem.jpg (7403 bytes) Dr.phys. Maris ABELE
Director,
Institute of Astronomy
University of Latvia

Raina bulv. 19
Riga, LV 1586
Latvia

Phone: +371 7034589
Fax: +371 7034582
E-mail: maris.abele@lu.lv

 

Born: April 27, 1937, Riga, Latvia

Interests:

Brief Description of Research:

Since 1960 M.Abele has headed a group of scientists and has taken an active part in the designing process of high precision instruments, like photographic cameras and satellite laser ranging equipment for observation - photo taking, distance measurements, Moon and satellite tracking - of numerous artificial satellites of the Earth. These instruments, of which more than 200 have been produced or manufactured to equip not only the satellite observation stations of the former USSR, but also those of numerous other states, like Egypt, France, Cuba, Bulgaria, Poland, Bolivia, Germany, India, Japan and other.

A special place among other instruments designed by M.Abele is taken by camera AFU-75, most widely used and best known device of those days considerably surpassed any of the existing analogues designed abroad. It was used in astronomical observatories of the USSR, France, Bolivia, Chad, Mali, Mozambique, India, Japan, Ecuador, Somalia, Egypt, Cuba, Mongolia and many other countries.

It must be noted, however, that in the age of modern technologies the laser ranging telescope LS-105 designed by M.Abele ranks prominent among the best astronomical instruments of this kind in the world, and is used for laser ranging under internationally coordinated research programs not only in Latvia (LU Institute of Astronomy in Riga), but also in Germany (GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam, http://www.gfz-potsdam.de/pbl/SLR/slr.htm), Finland (Finnish Institute of Geodesy) and the Ukraine (Lvov State University and Crimea) providing these programs with observation data characterised by highest available precision level.

Languages: Latvian, Russian, English

Education

Thesis: Photographic camera with speed compensation for observation of artificial satellites of the Earth.

Experience

Honours and Awards

Professional Activities and Memberships

Recent/Representative Publications

M.Abele has published over 30 scientific papers, yet his greatest merit and the most significant part of his research activities have found expression in about 30 patents (USSR, Germany, Bulgaria), of which several have been marked “for internal use only” in USSR.

Research Projects



Last update 18.01.2007