Projects Status
Check out the on-going and upcoming projects and facilities at the Arecibo Observatory, including the Arecibo Optical Laboratory (AOL), the Arecibo Lidar Facility (ALF), the Remote Optical Facility (ROF), the Culebra Aerosol Research Lidar (CARLA) Facility, the Callisto Spectrometer of the Arecibo Observatory, and the 12 m Arecibo Antenna.
Legend
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Under study | Preparing proposals, seeking for funding, pending on approval |
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In progress | Working with business operations, assembling |
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Commissioning | Installed, testing |
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Completed | In operation |
Arecibo Optical Laboratory (AOL)
Building Renovation|
IN PROGRESS |
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UNDER STUDY |
The Arecibo Lidar Facility (ALF)
Repairs| IN PROGRESS |
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IN PROGRESS |
The Remote Optical Facility (ROF)
Instrumental Acquisition|
IN PROGRESS |
12M Antenna
Room Temperature Operations|
IN OPERATION |
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IN PROGRESS |
The Culebra Aerosol Research Lidar (CARLA)
Installation|
IN PROGRESS |
AO-CALLISTO
Installation Completed|
IN OPERATION |
Arecibo Optical Laboratory (AOL)
Current StatusThe AOL sits in a karst saddle at the Arecibo Observatory (AO), protected from direct light pollution. Instrumentation at the AOL is a mixture of the original, custom aeronomy instruments, and modern internet-aware instruments recently established. These instruments include a 1-m Ebert-Fastie spectrometer with near-ultraviolet to near-infrared capability, two dual-channel tilting filter photometers, four Fabry-Perot Interferometers (FPIs), and an all-sky imager. Two more all-sky imagers owners from Boston University and Penn State University complete actual the set of instruments of AOL. The AOL was not damaged during the Gordon Telescope calamity on December 1, 2020. The site is operational and has continued to acquire data during this time, through remote or staffed operation.
Building Renovation|
IN PROGRESS |
The AOL operates since the 1960s and since then has had only one significant building renovation back in the 1980s. After the hit of Hurricane Maria in 2017, it was identified that the building is not well protected against severe weather events and needs to be renovated. The AO team already evaluated some renovation/extension options, which costs are being determined. The project to reinforce or replace the building will extend all through 2021. |
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UNDER STUDY |
To bring the existing AOL instruments up to peak performance after the Hurricane Maria, we identified some essential instrumental upgrades that are under cost evaluation. |
For more information on the scientific drivers and the equipment of the lab, please visit the AOL Website
Person of ContactDr. Pedrina Santos (pedrina.santos@ucf.edu)
The Arecibo Lidar Facility (ALF)
Current StatusThe Arecibo Lidar Facility sits on the hills that surround the Arecibo Observatory operations and office buildings. After hurricane Maria, significant flooding was observed in the Lidar laboratory area. The flooding damaged the chiller that serves the laser to the point that it doesn’t work and has to be replaced. The origin of the leak has been traced to wind driven water intrusion through the opening in the movable roof of the lidar lab facility.
Repairs|
IN PROGRESS |
The work at the Arecibo Lidar Facility will focus on sealing the roof to ensure the safety of the equipment and resiliency in the face of future weather events. We aim to do this job in the Spring and early Summer of 2021. |
Instrumental Upgrade
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IN PROGRESS |
This project focuses in replacing the various damaged equipment and upgrading it to improve the efficiency and to better serve the science goals of the different research projects that use this laboratory. The procurement of new instrumentation will advance the atmospheric sciences, strengthen existing collaborations, and assist in STEM education and outreach efforts. We will acquire a Dye and YAG laser and chiller for the Multi-Metal Lidar and Rayleigh Lidar. Also, we are studying the acquisition of a state of art Diode-Pumped Alexandrite laser and other sub-instruments (e.g., Seeder laser) for the temperature and potassium density Lidar |
For more information on the scientific drivers and the equipment of the lab, please visit the ALF Website
Person of ContactDr. Jens Lautenbach (jens.lautenbach@ucf.edu) & Dr. Shikha Raizada (shikha@naic.edu or shikha.raizada@ucf.edu)
The Remote Optical Facility (ROF)
Current StatusThe ROF was established in 2015 in Culebra, a small island in the east of Puerto Rico’s archipelago (approximately 150 km from Arecibo Observatory). Culebra is a federal nature reserve and was chosen due to its geographical and climatological characteristics, as well as the low light contamination, making it a strategic site for optical experiments. The ROF was not damaged during the Gordon Telescope calamity on December 1, 2020, and continues working through remote operation. Instrumentation at the ROF includes an all-sky imager, a riometer, a Fabry-Perot Interferometer, and a GPS system.
Instrumental Acquisition|
IN PROGRESS |
In 2021 ROF will receive a VHF Meteor Radar and a photometer in collaboration with the University of Illinois. A high-frequency receiver in collaboration with Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory will also be installed. Finally, the Culebra Aerosol Research Lidar will be installed at the ROF during this year. |
For more information on the scientific drivers and the equipment of the lab, please visit the ROF Website
Person of ContactDr. Pedrina Santos (pedrina.santos@ucf.edu)
12M Antenna
Current StatusThe Arecibo Observatory has a 12m diameter dish antenna which was commissioned in 2011. It is fully steerable and currently equipped with room temperature receivers at S and X bands to record dual-polarization signals. The plan for this antenna is to install a wideband (2.3-14 GHz) cryogenic receiver system and a 400-800 MHz room temperature receiver system on the 12m antenna. These receivers, that will replace the room temperature S/X band receivers, along with the existing and new backends will be used for a variety of astronomical projects. The 12m telescope will participate in European and North American Very Long Baseline Interferometer (VLBI) networks for a wide range of observations. It will also be part of the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) VLBI network, specifically for Fast Radio Burst (FRB) localization and Pulsar scintillometry studies.
Repairs & Instrumental Upgrade|
IN OPERATION |
Room Temperature Operations |
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IN PROGRESS |
Cryogenic Operations
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For more information on the scientific drivers and the equipment of the lab, please visit the 12m Antenna Website
Person of ContactDr. A. Roshi (aroshi@naic.edu)
The Culebra Aerosol Research Lidar (CARLA)
Current StatusThe Culebra Aerosol Research Lidar (CARLA) project was funded by the Puerto Rico Science, Technology and Research Trust (PRST) in March 2020. Through its innovative high spectral resolution lidar it will provide data to study aerosol layers and the so-called Saharan Air Layer at a Caribbean location. Additional funding was received in the form of a supplemental award of the main National Science Foundation Arecibo Observatory (AO) award. The funds of this supplement are used to deploy the CARLA instrument in a separate housing at the AO Remote Optical Facility (ROF) at Culebra. A customized 10ft by 8ft container with all the requirements to house and operate the CARLA instrument was acquired and has arrive at AO on February 05. 2021.
Installation|
IN PROGRESS |
The CARLA project is in the development phase and most equipment has been acquired. With the collaboration of the operations team at the Arecibo Observatory, it is expected that the CARLA instrument container is soon fully functional and the installation of all the equipment of CARLA can start at the observatory. It is anticipated that the testing phase (stage 3) will be successfully finished in the second half of 2021. Following the deployment at the AO Remote Optical Facility at Culebra (stage 4), CARLA will be fully operational (stage 5) at the end of 2021. |
For more information on the scientific drivers and the equipment of the lab, please visit the CARLA Project Website
Person of Contact
The Callisto Spectrometer of the Arecibo Observatory
Current StatusThe AO Callisto radio spectrometer system started the regular observations of the Sun from 10 October 2021. It is is a dual-channel programmable heterodyne receiver, equipped with a Long Wavelength Array (LWA) antenna, to record the circular polarization of the solar bursts in the frequency range of 10-90 MHz. The AO Callisto is part of the world-wide e-Callisto network, which provides a full 24-h coverage of the radio observations of the Sun (http://www.ecallisto.org). It is fully automated to record the daily solar radio spectrum, at a sampling rate of ~250 millisecond per 200-channel wide of the spectrum. Everyday observation is made in the time interval of 06:30 AM to 05:30 PM Puerto Rico time. The AO Callisto spectra are available from 10 October 2021. Everyday spectra are made accessible in real time to the international research community at an interval of 15-min at the website: http://www.e-callisto.org/Data/data.html.
Installation Completed|
IN OPERATION |
AO Callisto will be used to routinely observe solar radio bursts, which have significance in space weather studies and educational sciences. The Callisto can operate at frequencies below 900 MHz. Observations of solar radio bursts at these low frequencies are important as they originate in the same heights of the solar atmosphere in which solar transients, such as solar flares, energetic particles and coronal mass ejections, are. The Callisto observations along with the 12-m interplanetary scintillation measurements and ground- and space-based images of solar eruptions can essentially track space weather disturbances in the Sun-Earth distance as well as useful for the successful preparation of space weather effects. Callisto is also a suitable system for monitoring the RFI environment of the observatory. |
For more information on the scientific drivers and specs of the instrument visit the AO-CALLISTO website
Person of Contact