A delayed post from the ISR summer school at Arecibo (23-29 July 2017)

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The 10th annual Incoherent Scatter Radar (ISR) School was held at the Arecibo Observatory. I was there to participate in the summer school and to conduct a HF heating experiment.

The ISR students and lecturers. Photo by Phil Erickson

Arecibo scientists and many of the PIs from other IS radars were dropping knowledge during the summer school. As participants of the summer school, we got hands-on experience using the Arecibo ISR. We also got a tour of the 300-meter Arecibo dish from below and, for people without vertigo, from above the dish.

 

Photo from below the dish and an image of a handful of students and lecturers on the platform above the dish. Photos by Phil Erickson

There is unfortunately not much to report from the heating experiment. The ISR transmitter didn’t work properly, due to a broken klystron, and clouds and moonlight made optical observations of heating induced airglow difficult. Hopefully I will get another chance. All the space physicists at UiT hopes that Arecibo survived the worst of Irma and Maria. 

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