SCACRD-Canada Joins the Cosmic Ray Division Family
By Haig Misakyan
September 12, 2004
SCACRD – Canada members with Anahid. From left to right front row: Haig Misakyan, Virginia Misakyan, Anahid Dian Yeremian, Joseph Yeremian, Aram Isnar, Abraham Kandaharian. Second row: Talar Misakyan, Dr. Andre Nazarian, France Kandaharian, Tili Isnar, Seza Nazarian. Third row, left to right: George Yeremian, Maral Minassian, Janet Yeremian. Fourth row, left to right: Dr. Berge Minassian, Migirdic Migirdicyan. Missing from the picture: Dr. Zareh & Lena Ouzounian, Dr. Garo and Viviane Topjian, Ani Migirdicyan,
On September 3, 2004, an enthusiastic group of Canadian-Armenians gathered
at the home of Virginia and Haig Misakyan, in Toronto, to listen to
a presentation about the Cosmic Ray Division (CRD) of the Yerevan Physics
Institute in Armenia. Anahid Yeremian, the chairperson of the Support
Committee for Armenia’s Cosmic Ray Division (SCACRD), with chapters
in California, Michigan, and New England, explained the vision of Prof.
Chilingarian, the head of the CRD. “Prof. Chilingarian feels that
Armenia has the ability to be an international leader in certain aspects
of science and cosmic ray physics and space weather forecasting is one
of those areas”, she emphasized to a fascinated audience.
“Indeed every time I have the opportunity to talk about the CRD, I am myself awed at the accelerated progress this group of outstanding and dedicated scientists, technicians, students and support personnel makes under the leadership of Prof. Chilingarian”, says Anahid. During the 5-year partnership of the Diaspora (through SCACRD) with the CRD we have witnessed unbounded accomplishments by them. Today because of the CRD, Armenia leads the world in the ground based research aspect of space weather forecasting, winning international recognition at the United Nations’ World Summit for Information Society in December of 2003.
Cosmic Ray Physicists try to understand the phenomena associated with the birth, life, and death of stars and other celestial bodies. This research has led the CRD into a very exciting and interesting new direction – the forecasting of space weather due to outbursts from our star, the sun. Scientific magazines, such as New Scientist which is published in England, and Science in the U.S., as well as other publications such as the New York Times and National Geographic magazine, have published feature articles on weather and space weather forecasting. The articles in the New Scientist and Science magazines featured reports on the impressive work being done by the CRD in Armenia.
The ground based research at the CRD in Armenia complements the research based on data from detectors on the SOHO, ACE, and RHESSI satellites in space and is vital part of understanding and forecasting space weather. In fact, as it happened with SOHO in the summer of 2003, sometimes the satellite used for research malfunctions itself, requiring very costly, and sometimes, fatal attempts to fix it in space. Thus the ground based research can be more robust and at times act as a back up for the space based research.
The most severe solar outbursts are accompanied by few, yet very high energy particles which reach the earth at nearly the speed of light. Though too few to be reliably detected by the relatively small detectors on satellites, they can be and are detected by large area detectors on he ground. The high energy particles act as precursors to alert us that a stream of many more particles which are less energetic and slower are on their way towards earth. This large stream of particles is particularly dangerous. Correlating the information from the ground based detectors with X-rays and other satellite data can lead to more timely and reliable space weather alerts.
The cosmic ray station at 10,500 ft elevation on Mt. Aragats in Armenia was founded in 1943 by the visionary physicists, Artem and Abaraham Alikhanian. Later a second station at 6500 ft was constructed. The stations have an extensive infrastructure and are manned year round. The Aragats Space Environmental Center (ASEC), also headed by Prof. Chilingarian, was established at these cosmic ray stations in 2001. ASEC is a valuable partner in the world-wide network of space weather research organizations such as the European Space Agency, the U. S. National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Agency, the international network of neutron monitors and solar neutron telescopes. CRD’s strategic geographic location (latitude and altitude) maximizes the chance for the detection of those few very high energy, early arriving particles which warn of the onset of severe space weather. This information is a very important piece of the space weather puzzle.
Space weather is one of the most important problems of the 21-st century, which we must understand and forecasted. It is exciting for us, Armenians, that the CRD leads the world in the ground based aspect of the research and development in this field. It is doubly exciting for the SCACRD and the Diaspora friends who have and continue their unwavering support of the CRD, financial and otherwise.
“We welcome the SCACRD – Canada chapter and the Canadian Diaspora to our fold. We also thank the US SCACRD chapters in California, Michigan, and New England for their continued activity. We thank the Armenian Engineers and Scientists of America (AESA, 417 West Arden Ave., #112C, Glendale, CA 91203), AESA –MI section (P.O. Box 4867, Troy, MI 48099) and the Bay Area Friends of Armenia (BAFA, PO Box 3584, Daly City, CA 94015) for accepting contributions specially designated for the CRD. We also thank other Diaspora organizations who have or continue to support the CRD in various ways. Among them: AAA, ANC, all AESA chapters, ARS, ATG, FAR, KoV, UAF, various churches and schools, and the Hairenik and NAASR bookstores in Watertown and Belmont, MA and the Sardarabad bookstore in Glendale. We thank you, the individual Diaspora members who have caught the vision of Prof. Chilingarian and continue to stay with us on this exciting ride. Most of all we thank the 80 dedicated scientists, technicians and students of the CRD who stay in Armenia and contribute to our motherland’s accelerated development with their talents”, gratefully acknowledges Anahid.
For more information about the CRD, their research, and
how you can help, please visit www.crdfriends.org
frequently, as the sight is updated frequently.