New NAIC ionospheric facility planned near Arecibo

Abstract

The National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center (NAIC) is building a High Frequency Ionospheric Modification Facility near Arecibo, Puerto Rico. When completed in June of next year, the facility will be able to deliver an effective power of 160 million W to the area of the ionosphere under study. This will be accomplished by an array of antennas covering more than 8 ha that will focus power from four 200,000‐W transmitters.The new HF facility will replace an ionospheric heating apparatus now mounted occasionally on the main Arecibo telescope. The other device operates at lower power, requiring other experiments to stop while it is in operation.