The Italian Embassy in Oslo hosted today the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding in the framework of the SOLARIS project, concerning the observation of solar phenomena and space meteorology. SOLARIS is a scientific and technological project between Italian research institutions and universities with the aim of developing an intelligent and high-frequency radio monitoring system of solar phenomena, based on “single-dish” imaging techniques.
The MoU aims to create two new observation points in Tromsø, in northern Norway, and in the Arctic archipelago of the Svalbard Islands, which will be added to the SOLARIS radio telescopes already present in Antarctica. The signing ceremony was held at the Residence of Ambassador Stefano Nicoletti and was attended by all the project partners, namely INAF and the University of Milan on the Italian side and the University of Oslo, the Geophysical Observatory of the University of Tromsø and the Svalbard University Centre on the Norwegian side.
Three representatives of NOSA, the Norwegian Space Agency, were also present at the ceremony, demonstrating the attention paid by local scientific authorities to new and fruitful collaborations with Italy. “I was pleased to accept the request of the parties to the MoU to host the signing ceremony of this new important piece in the field of scientific and space relations between Italy and Norway,” commented Ambassador Stefano Nicoletti. “In recent times we have witnessed a consolidation of the existing collaborations between our two countries and the opening of new significant channels of dialogue in the space sector. This is demonstrated by the mission of Italian companies and institutions in the sector to Norway last June and the very recent visit of the Minister of Enterprise and Made in Italy, Adolfo Urso, and the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Edmondo Cirielli, to the Spaceport on the island of Andøya, in the north of the country, a strategic infrastructure that is being completed to promote autonomous European access to space.”
“La Statale is proud to be alongside Norway for this important Memorandum of Understanding on solar phenomena and space meteorology. These are topics developed at a high level by our Department of Physics: this agreement confirms the research-intensive nature of our research and its international scope,” commented the Rector of the University of Milan, Marina Brambilla.
