GONG AT CTIO

Over the past few days, Chile has been impacted by an exceptionally powerful winter storm system. The storm brought intense rainfall, strong winds, flooding, landslides, and road closures across the Coquimbo Region. Some areas experienced exceptionally heavy rainfall over a very short period of time. 

 GONG station at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory was shut down prior to the storm. However, returning to operations will unfortunately take a significant time.  The reports indicate that the parts of paved section of the road to the observatory are washed out. The electric power is also out, likely due to downed power poles. The main network fiber is down, but the microwave backup is still working at present, so there is network access, albeit at much reduced speed. For more recent updates, see here.

Image: The public road leading to Cerro Tololo and Cerro Pachón washed out at the San Carlos ravine. Credit: Elquiglobal via Instagram