Arecibo Update

I talked on the phone today with Christiano Brum from Arecibo. He said that things are mostly fine. Water is coming back. Some people have briefly had electricity, which hopefully is an indication that electricity will come back soon too. There is also gasoline, but you need to wait in line for it. Same goes for withdrawing money. Food is low in stores, but there are some things to buy. Rationing is in place. He said that after a window broke in his house, the hurricane got in for the next six hours. The same happened to many others too.

Christiano said that Arecibo is in good shape. The only loss was the line feed, but the Gregorian is in good shape. The radar is still functional, and I assume that any damage to the dish is minimal. He said that everything can be fixed, and it will not take them long to get back up and running.

View from the Arecibo control room in 2015. The view is mostly the same now, but the line feed is missing.

Maybe now would be a good time to start thinking of what to propose as an upgrade to replace the line feed. Replacing it shouldn't be that big of a problem. Maybe the next line feed could have some new capabilities. Maybe a powerful Solar radar transmitter at 30-50 MHz?

Can't wait to go back to this wonderful island to do some more measurements with the most powerful radar in the world.