Dr. Johannes Knapp (left), ASEC board chairperson, accepting the accession certificate from VAO chairperson, Dr. Michael Krautblatter
The polar and high mountain regions of the earth are warming at nearly twice the rate of Europe, and two-and-a-half times the global average. This can have profound consequences on earth’s weather including, for example, the supply of fresh water from melting snowcaps at places such as Armenia. In April 2012 the “Virtual Alpine Observatory,” a networked collaboration of international research organizations operating high-altitude observatories and research stations, was established and has been studying this situation.
Cross-border cooperation has made it possible to study problems related to the atmosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere and cryosphere to determine the environmental impact on human health and well-being. All these spheres are interlinked. Changes in one can affect the others. Participating are research institutes and observatories in Austria, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Georgia, Italy, Norway, Slovenia, and Switzerland.
Dr. Johannes Knapp, a scientist at the DESY research center in Germany, and member of the international board of directors of the Aragats Space Environment Center of the Yerevan Physics Institute’s Cosmic Ray Division, on October 26, 2023 accepted CRD’s accession certificate from the Chair of the VAO, Prof. Dr. Michael Krautblatter. The CRD is now a VAO associate member. The VAO is a subproject of the European Neighborhood Policy. As a statement by the VAO indicated, “That environmental and climate challenges are transboundary interdependent by nature, and therefore require a holistic approach to address them.”
CRD will participate in VAO’s interdisciplinary study of Alpine warming. Measurements of various parameters at different locations will be collected, put into formats according to international standards, and shared. Moreover, analysis and visualization tools will be developed to access this data at VAO’s high performance computing centers. CRD operates two high altitude research stations on Mt. Aragats: Aragats station at 3200 m (10,500 ft), and Nor Ambert at 2,000 m (6,560 ft). Here a large number of meteorological, geophysical, and atmospheric processes are monitored, including electrical events in the atmosphere. Data from these measurements are put on the internet in near real time together with analytical tools.
Dr. Knapp is professor at Deutches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY) in Germany, where he specializes in astroparticle physics. He is chairman of the Aragats Space Environment Center Board of Directors, and is a frequent visitor to Armenia.
