Institut de radioastronomie millimétrique
The Institut de radioastronomie millimétrique is a European radio astronomy observatory which operates telescopes sensitive to millimeter wavelengths.
The two main facilities are the single-dish IRAM 30m telescope located at 2850 m altitude on Pico Veleta in the Spanish Sierra Nevada, and the ten-antenna Northern Extended Millimeter Array radio interferometer at 2550 m in the French Alps. Both sites are at high altitude to reduce the absorption by water vapour in Earth's atmosphere. The telescopes are supported by the IRAM offices and laboratories in Granada and Grenoble, respectively. The IRAM headquarters are on the campus of Université Grenoble Alpes near Grenoble.
IRAM was founded in 1979 and is operated as a French-German-Spanish collaboration. Its partner institutes are the Centre national de la recherche scientifique, the Max Planck Society, and the Instituto Geográfico Nacional. In 2016, The University of Michigan Astronomy Department signed into an agreement allowing access to NOEMA.
The principal activity of IRAM is the study of mostly cold matter in the solar system, in our Milky Way, and other galaxies out to cosmological distances in order to determine their composition, physical parameters and history. IRAM also hosts the research laboratory and platform Altitude SEE Test European Platform.
