Munich, 26 October: Johannes Knapp, representing the Cosmic Ray Division, receives the VAO accession certificate from the Chair of the VAO board, Prof. Dr. Michael Krautblatter.

With already well-established institutions in the Alpine and Prealpine regions, such as the observatories Sonnblick (Austria), Jungfraujoch/Gornergrat (Switzerland), UFS Schneefernerhaus (Germany), Otlica (Slovenia), EURAC Research (Italy) and OSUG (France) outstanding research infrastructures have joined up to form the VAO. The VAO aims to give coherence to the research efforts of partner organizations and thus maximize scientific outputs. Laboratories at mountain tops allow a variety of research topics. 

A SEVAN Network detector has been operating since May 2023 at the UFS Schneefernerhaus on the Zugspitze.

CRD operates its high-altitude research laboratory in Armenia with several research stations on the slopes of the standing-alone Aragats Mountain (4090 m asl, the highest mountain in Armenia) south of the Caucasus Mountains range. In 1943, one of the world’s largest high-mountain research stations was established on Mt. Aragats at 3,200 m. elevation. Since then, expeditions on Aragats have continued uninterruptedly. Currently, physicists of the Cosmic Ray Division of the Yerevan Physics Institute, with re-equipped and renewed facilities, continue their research in galactic and solar cosmic rays, solar-terrestrial connections, high-energy atmospheric physics, and space weather. 

Within the VAO (https://www.vao.bayern.de), coordinated research and development projects will be executed with other VAO partners in international networks and research programs, data will be exchanged, experiences will be shared, and joint outreach and training projects will be conducted (e.g., for university and high-school students,  teachers training, summer schools, training and exchange of young scientists).