PRESS RELEASE
Contact: Haig Misakyan
Chair, Support Committee for Armenia’s cosmic Ray Division – Canada
Nortool Automotive Warehousing Inc.
438 Limestone Cresc.
North York, Ontario M3J 2S4 Canada
Tel. 416-667-1083
haig-aram@sympatico.ca
September 12, 2004
SCACRD-Canada Joins the Cosmic Ray Division Family
On September 3, 2004, an enthusiastic group of Canadian-Armenians
gathered at the home of Virginia and Haig Misakyan 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 journals, such as New Scientist
magazine which is published in England, and Science Magazine in the
U.S., as well as other publications such as the New York Times and
National Geographic Magazine, have published feature articles on
space weather and space weather forecasting. The articles in the
New Scientist and Science Magazine 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: AAA, ANC, all AESA
chapters, ARS, ATG, FAR, KoV, UAF, various churches and schools, and
the Hairenik Bookstore in Watertown. 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 frequently, as the sight is
updated frequently.
Photo: 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,