{"id":12676,"date":"2024-12-10T12:05:51","date_gmt":"2024-12-10T16:05:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zobi.alcowep.com\/bourtagshdrevxnls658739\/scientists-share-early-results-from-nasas-solar-eclipse-experiments\/"},"modified":"2024-12-10T12:05:51","modified_gmt":"2024-12-10T16:05:51","slug":"scientists-share-early-results-from-nasas-solar-eclipse-experiments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zobi.alcowep.com\/bourtagshdrevxnls658739\/scientists-share-early-results-from-nasas-solar-eclipse-experiments\/","title":{"rendered":"Scientists Share Early Results from NASA\u2019s Solar Eclipse Experiments\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

Scientists Share Early Results from NASA\u2019s Solar Eclipse Experiments\u00a0<\/h2>\n

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5 Min Read<\/div>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tScientists Share Early Results from NASA\u2019s Solar Eclipse Experiments\u00a0\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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On April 8, 2024, a total solar eclipse swept across a narrow portion of the North American continent from Mexico\u2019s Pacific coast to the Atlantic coast of Newfoundland, Canada. This photo was taken from Dallas, Texas.<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\tCredits: <\/span>
\n\t\t\t\t\t\tNASA\/Keegan Barber<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

On April 8, 2024, a total solar eclipse swept across North America, from the western shores of Mexico, through the United States, and into northeastern Canada. For the eclipse, NASA helped fund numerous research projects and called upon citizen scientists in support of NASA\u2019s goal to understand how our home planet is affected by the Sun \u2013 including, for example, how our star interacts with Earth\u2019s atmosphere and affects radio communications. \u00a0<\/p>\n

At a press briefing on Tuesday, Dec. 10, scientists attending the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union in Washington, D.C., reported some early results from a few of these eclipse experiments.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cScientists and tens of thousands of volunteer observers<\/a> were stationed throughout the Moon\u2019s shadow,\u201d said Kelly Korreck, eclipse program manager at NASA Headquarters in Washington. \u201cTheir efforts were a crucial part of the Heliophysics Big Year<\/a> \u2013 helping us to learn more about the Sun and how it affects Earth\u2019s atmosphere when our star\u2019s light temporarily disappears from view.\u201d<\/p>\n

Changes in the Corona<\/strong><\/h2>\n

On April 8, the Citizen CATE 2024<\/strong> (Continental-America Telescopic Eclipse) project stationed 35 observing teams from local communities from Texas to Maine to capture images of the Sun\u2019s outer atmosphere, or corona, during totality. Their goal is to see how the corona changed as totality swept across the continent.<\/p>\n

On Dec. 10, Sarah Kovac, the CATE project manager at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, reported that, while a few teams were stymied by clouds, most observed totality successfully \u2014 collecting over 47,000 images in all.\u00a0<\/p>\n

These images were taken in polarized light, or light oriented in different directions, to help scientists better understand the processes that shape the corona.<\/p>\n

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This preliminary movie from the Citizen CATE 2024 project stitches together polarized images of the solar corona taken from different sites during the total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024.<\/div>\n
SwRI\/Citizen CATE 2024\/Dan Seaton\/Derek Lamb<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Kovac shared the first cut of a movie created from these images. The project is still stitching together all the images into the final, hour-long movie, for release at a later time.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe beauty of CATE 2024 is that we blend cutting-edge professional science with community participants from all walks of life,\u201d Kovac said. \u201cThe dedication of every participant made this project possible.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, 50,000 feet above the ground, two NASA WB-57 aircraft<\/strong> chased the eclipse shadow as it raced across the continent, observing above the clouds and extending their time in totality to approximately 6 minutes and 20 seconds.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On board were cameras and spectrometers (instruments that analyze different wavelengths of light) built by multiple research teams to study the corona.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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This image of the total solar eclipse is a combination of 30 50-millisecond exposures taken with a camera mounted on one of NASA\u2019s WB-57 aircraft on April 8, 2024. It was captured in a wavelength of light emitted by ionized iron atoms called Fe XIV. This emission highlights electrified gas, called plasma, at a specific temperature (around 3.2 million degrees Fahrenheit) that often reveals arch-like structures in the corona.<\/div>\n
B. Justen, O. Mayer, M. Justen, S. Habbal, and M. Druckmuller<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

On Dec. 10, Shadia Habbal of the University of Hawaii, who led one of the teams, reported that their instruments collected valuable data, despite one challenge. Cameras they had mounted on the aircraft\u2019s wings experienced unexpected vibrations, which caused some of the images to be slightly blurred.<\/p>\n

However, all the cameras captured detailed images of the corona, and the spectrometers, which were located in the nose of the aircraft, were not affected. The results were so successful, scientists are already planning to fly similar experiments on the aircraft again.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe WB-57 is a remarkable platform for eclipse observations that we will try to capitalize on for future eclipses,\u201d Habbal said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Affecting the Atmosphere<\/strong><\/h2>\n

On April 8, amateur or \u201cham\u201d radio operators sent and received signals to one another before, during, and after the eclipse as part of the Ham Radio Science Citizen Investigation<\/strong> (HamSCI) Festivals of Eclipse Ionospheric Science. More than 6,350 amateur radio operators generated over 52 million data points to observe how the sudden loss of sunlight during totality affects their radio signals and the ionosphere, an electrified region of Earth\u2019s upper atmosphere.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Students from Case Western Reserve University operate radios during the 2024 total solar eclipse.<\/div>\n
HamSCI\/Case Western Reserve University<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Radio communications inside and outside the path of totality<\/a> improved at some frequencies (from 1-7 MHz), showing there was a reduction in ionospheric absorption. At higher frequencies (10 MHz and above), communications worsened.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Results using another technique, which bounced high-frequency radio waves (3-30 MHz) off the ionosphere, suggests that the ionosphere ascended in altitude during the eclipse and then descended to its normal height afterward.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe project brings ham radio operators into the science community,\u201d said Nathaniel Frissell, a professor at the University of Scranton in Pennsylvania and lead of HamSCI. \u201cTheir dedication to their craft made this research possible.\u201d\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n

Also looking at the atmosphere, the Nationwide Eclipse Ballooning Project<\/strong> organized student groups across the U.S. to launch balloons into the shadow of the Moon as it crossed the country in April 2024 and during a solar eclipse in October 2023<\/a>. Teams flew weather sensors and other instruments to study the atmospheric response to the cold, dark shadow.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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The eclipse\u2019s shadow was captured from a camera aboard Virginia Tech\u2019s balloon as part of the Nationwide Eclipse Ballooning Project on April 8, 2024.<\/div>\n
Nationwide Eclipse Ballooning Project\/Virginia Tech<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

This research, conducted by over 800 students, confirmed that eclipses can generate ripples in Earth\u2019s atmosphere called atmospheric gravity waves. Just as waves form in a lake when water is disturbed, these waves also form in the atmosphere when air is disturbed. This project, led by Angela Des Jardins of Montana State University in Bozeman, also confirmed the presence of these waves during previous solar eclipses. Scientists think the trigger for these waves is a \u201chiccup\u201d in the tropopause, a layer in Earth\u2019s atmosphere, similar to an atmospheric effect that is observed during sunset.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHalf of the teams had little to no experience ballooning before the project,\u201d said Jie Gong, a team science expert and atmospheric scientist at NASA\u2019s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. \u201cBut their hard work and research was vital in this finding.\u201d<\/p>\n

By Abbey Interrante<\/a> and Vanessa Thomas<\/a><\/strong>
NASA\u2019s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n

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