| 2011-01-26 14:17:58 |
SEVAN Network expanding to India Jawaharlal Nehru University
The networkof particle detectors located at middle to low latitudes, SEVAN (Space Environmental Viewing and Analysis Network) aims to improve fundamental researches of the particle acceleration in the vicinity of the sun and thespace environments. The new type of particle detectors will simultaneously measure changing fluxes of most species of secondary cosmic rays, thus turning into a powerful integrated device used for the exploration of solar modulation effects. The first four SEVAN modules operated at the Aragats Space Environmental Center in Armenia, on the slopes of mountain Aragats. In 2009 we deployed SEVAN units in Croatia and Bulgaria.In the fall of 2010 we launched SEVAN unit in Remote Sensing Applications Laboratory, School of Environmental Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India. We plan to send SEVAN unit to Slovakia in 2011. Ground based particle detectors measure time series of secondary particles born in cascades which originate in the atmosphere caused by the protons and stripped ions accelerated in Galaxy and in the vicinity of the Sun. The networks of particle detectors can predict upcoming space storms tens of minutes before the arrival of energetic protons from the Sun and hours before the arrival of huge clouds of plasma, ejected by the sun and traveling in the interplanetary space with speed up to 2000 km/sec. Reliable forecasts of the major geomagnetic and radiation storms are of great importance because of the failures of the major space and earth surface-based technologies as well as for posing radiation hazard on the crew and passengers of satellites,aircraft, on the Global Positioning System (GPS) and other radio-based communication technologies.
Figure1.The CRD experts (from left to right) Karen Arakelyan, David Pokhsraryan andnew SEVAN host Prof. JNU Saumitra Mukherjee