The International Union of Radio Science (French: l'Union Radio-Scientifique Internationale, URSI) is one of 26 international scientific unions affiliated to the International Council for Science.
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URSI was officially created in 1919, during the Constitutive Assembly of the International Research Council (now ICSU), based on the earlier Commission Internationale de Telegraphie sans Fil (1913-1914) when the only radio communication system was radiotelegraphy. It has held a general assembly every three years from 1922. 50 years ago URSI was one of the most important promotors of the International Geophysical Year.
URSI's original objective (to encourage "scientific studies of radiotelegraphy, especially those which require international cooperation") has been broadened to include all radio science, from telecommunications to radio astronomy, acquisition of radar information about distant passive objects, studies of the radiation stimulated or spontaneously emitted by these objects, biological effects of electromagnetic radiation and active modification of objects by radio waves, within the spectrum from extremely low frequency to the optical domain.
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
A few Commissions are engaged with international projects in cooperation with other international bodies, for example with the Committee on Space Research in the project International Reference Ionosphere.[1]