Starting Feb. 12, NASA will launch a two-month campaign in Puerto Rico to study space weather using rockets and ground instruments, including the world's largest radio telescope in Arecibo, Puerto Rico. The project is expected to provide information that ultimately will help improve the reliability of radio and satellite communications. The project is a continuation of a 1992 project called El Coqui, named after a species of native frog which is an ecological and cultural symbol of Puerto Rico.
People tend to think that space is a quiet place with no activity.
In fact, the layers that are the focus of the Coqui Dos study are very active features that are responsible for disruptions of radio, television, and satellite communications. The 1992 project had a 100 percent success rate and ten scientific papers have been published based on the data obtained, Kelley said. Just as studies of the lower atmosphere in the 1960s led to our current understanding of weather and improved weather forecasts, the Coqui Dos studies are expected to lead to a better understanding of the ionosphere so that we can predict activity in this region in the future, Kelley said. Puerto Rico was selected as the launch site due to the availability of the National Science Foundation's National Astronomy and Ionospheric Center. The Arecibo radio telescope provides unique capabilities for detecting the activity within the electrical layers.