Forty-eight tons (44,000 kilograms) of material from space fall onto the Earth each year. These meteoroids experience ablation and sputtering in the atmosphere, leaving behind metal and ion deposits that form thin layers in the ionosphere. Read More

A unique, high-altitude plasma cavity formed over Arecibo during an ionospheric heating campaign conducted at the observatory in June of 2019. Simultaneously, the Arecibo Incoherent Scatter Radar (ISR) collected measurements of the narrow cavity, revealing an exceptionally deep depletion of the electron density and a strong enhancement of the electron and ion temperatures. Read More

New results from the AO Remote Optical Facility (ROF) have shown that certain wavelike perturbations in the Earth’s ionosphere are highly dependent on season in a variety of ways. For the first time, these perturbations – known as Medium Scale Traveling Ionospheric Disturbances (MSTIDs) - were conclusively shown to be modulated by the geomagnetic and solar activities.

This past January, the Arecibo Observatory became the classroom for students from the Miami University in Ohio. Dr. Qihou Zhou, professor and chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the university, has held the “Undergraduate Hands-on Experience with Incoherent Scatter Radar” three-week winter term course at the observatory for the past six years. Read More