- Arecibo Celebrates National Engineers Week 06 Apr, 2022
- The Arecibo Observatory at the Upcoming 240th American Astronomical Society Meeting06 Apr, 2022
- The Arecibo Observatory Survey Salvage Committee Report06 Apr, 2022
- Facilities and Operations Update06 Apr, 2022
- PRISMA Meteor Radar Arrives at AO04 Apr, 2022
- The Grand Reopening of the Angel Ramos Science and Visitor Center at the Arecibo Observatory01 Apr, 2022
- Orbital stability analysis and photometric characterization of the second Earth Trojan asteroid 2020 XL531 Mar, 2022
- Arecibo Celebrates International Women’s Day31 Mar, 2022
- A Letter from the Director Eng. Francisco Cordova31 Mar, 2022
- The History of Arecibo’s Legacy Telescope to Impact the Future, Thanks to the AO Salvage Survey Committee31 Mar, 2022
- Announcing AO/GBT Single Dish Summer School May 16th - 20th, 2022 30 Mar, 2022
- NSF REU program at Arecibo receives funding for next 3 years23 Mar, 2022
- A Parkes "Murriyang" Search for Pulsars and Transients in the Large Magellanic Cloud23 Mar, 2022
- Noise analysis in the European Pulsar Timing Array data release 2 and its implications on the gravitational-wave background search23 Mar, 2022
- Arecibo S-band Radar Characterization of Local-scale Heterogeneities within Mercury's North Polar Deposits23 Mar, 2022
- Arecibo’s Eye on the Sun21 Mar, 2022
Management Update (COVID-19, Eartquakes, Transmitters)
Byadmin27 March 2020 Management

Management | Management Update (COVID-19, Earthquakes, Transmitters) |
Arecibo Observatory Management Update Regarding COVID-19 Pandemic
The Arecibo Observatory’s priority is the health and safety of the staff and our users. In response to COVID-19 and in order to comply with restrictions implemented by the Government of Puerto Rico via executive order OS-2020-23, the Arecibo observatory will be implementing the following workplace changes:
- All AO science and science support staff will be working remotely beginning on March 16, 2020. We encourage the use of email if need to contact an AO staff member.
- No visitors will be allowed on the facility until further notice. If you planned on visiting the facility in the upcoming weeks, please contact us in order to discuss the details of your travel arrangement.
- Scheduled Science Observations:
- Due to government mandated curfew, observations currently scheduled between 9:00pm-5:00am from March 16, 2020 – March 30,2020 will be halted. Our telescope operations team will be working to reschedule these observations to a later date if possible. Observation PI’s impacted will be contacted by the AO staff.
- Previously scheduled active radar observations will be placed on hold, this includes HF and S Band radar observations.
- Previously scheduled passive observations between 6:00am-8:30pm will continue to take place as normal.
We appreciate your understanding and flexibility as we manage this unprecedented event. We will continue to monitor the situation and maintain the user community informed of any changes to operations. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us.

As you know Puerto Rico has been impacted with a series of significant earthquakes throughout the first weeks of 2020. All AO staff members are safe and our technical teams have completed preliminary visual analysis of the primary structure and have found no immediate damage.
"All AO staff members are safe and our technical teams have completed preliminary visual analysis of the primary structure and have found no immediate damage/ issues..." - Eng. Francisco Cordova, Director of the Arecibo Observatory

S-Band Transmitter Controller Upgrades We have begun upgrades to the planetary radar system’s S-Band transmitter controller at Arecibo. Continental Electronics Corporation recently completed a site visit and we estimate completion of the upgrades in CY2021 Q3. All of the S-band electronics will be replaced in order to extend the life and reliability of the transmitter and monitoring capabilities of the system. This will allow us to track the performance of the transmitter and klystrons individually and with higher fidelity.
Article written by Dr. Tracy Becker - AO Collaborator / SwRI Research Scientist
Contact: tbecker@swri.edu |
Science Manager |
Keywords: arecibo, observatory, 430, MHZ, transmitter, director, cordova, earthquakes , covid, update, radar, staff, telescope, government, status