India Joins Cosmic Ray Division’s SEVAN Network
Anahid Yeremian
May 23, 2007
Prof. Ashot Chilingarian with Prof. Saumitra Mukherjee in front of the
International Conference Center of the German Physical Society in Bad Honnef.
Last week India joined SEVAN, the world wide Space Environmental Viewing and Analysis Network, led by the Cosmic Ray Division (CRD) of Yerevan Physics Institute. At a May 19 meeting of the International Heliophysical Year-07 conference in Bad Honnef, Germany which established cooperation among the IHY-07 participants, CRD’s head Prof. Ashot Chilingarian and Prof. Saumitra Mukherjee of the School of Environmental Sciences of Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi signed a memorandum of understanding for their cooperation.
SEVAN will consist of portable, state-of-the-art space weather detectors designed by the CRD scientists in Armenia which will be placed in countries around the earth’s circumference for an extensive program of space weather observation, analysis, and forecasting. The most technical and sensitive parts of the detectors will be built in Armenia. The mechanical framework and heavy support components will be built and assembled in the host countries. The collected data will flow via the internet to the control center in Yerevan. Prof. Ashot Chilingarian is the author and Principal Investigator of the project. SEVAN detectors will also be placed in several secondary schools in Armenia and Artsakh for a broad coverage of the region and to allow students to participate is this research.
SEVAN was named the Observatory of the Week, and Professor Chilingarian was named the Personality of the Week, in IHY07's weekly newsletter. The IHY07 article may be viewed at:
http://ihy2007.org/newsroom/weekly_070508.shtml
Last week in Bad Honnef a second CRD proposal to the IHY committee, "Research of Highest Energy Solar Cosmic Rays", was approved. The details of this cooperative effort will be worked out in the coming months.