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    2024 04 Scientists Pursue Total Solar Eclipse

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    2024 04 Scientists Pursue Total Solar Eclipse

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    Asim Ali
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    2024 04 Scientists Pursue Total Solar Eclipse

    Uploaded by

    Asim Ali

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    of 4

    Scientists pursue the total solar eclipse with

    NASA jet planes

    April 4 2024, by Mara Johnson-Groh

    This map shows the path of the 2024 total solar eclipse. The dark path across the
    continent is the path of totality. By flying along this path, the WB-57s will extend
    the amount of time they spend in totality. Credit: NASA/Scientific Visualization
    Studio/Michala Garrison; Eclipse Calculations By Ernie Wright, NASA Goddard
    Space Flight Center

    The April 8, 2024, total solar eclipse will produce stunning views across
    North America. While anyone along the eclipse path with a clear sky will
    see the spectacular event, the best view might be 50,000 feet in the air,
    aboard NASA's WB-57 jet planes. That's where a trio of NASA-funded

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    teams are sending their scientific instruments to take measurements of
    the eclipse.

    Two teams will image the sun's outer atmosphere—the corona—and a


    third will measure the ionosphere, the upper electrically charged layer of
    Earth's atmosphere. This information will help scientists better
    understand the structure and temperature of the corona, the effects of
    the sun on Earth's atmosphere, and even aid in the search of asteroids
    that may orbit near the sun.

    During a total solar eclipse, the moon perfectly blocks the bright face of
    the sun, casting a small swath of Earth in darkness. With the sun's main
    light masked, the much dimmer solar corona becomes visible to the
    naked eye. This provides scientists a unique opportunity to study this
    mysterious region of the sun. The brief blocking of sunlight also allows
    scientists to study how the sun's light affects Earth's atmosphere.

    In the past, solar eclipses have driven numerous scientific discoveries.


    For this solar eclipse, NASA is funding several scientific experiments
    —including the three using the WB-57s—to make measurements during
    the eclipse. NASA's WB-57s fly much higher than commercial aircraft.
    This altitude allows the jets to fly above clouds—meaning no chance of
    missing the eclipse due to bad weather.

    Additionally, the height puts the jets above most of Earth's atmosphere,
    which allows for the cameras to take crisper images and capture
    wavelengths, such as infrared light, that don't make it to the ground.
    Since the planes can travel at 460 miles per hour, they're also able to
    extend the time they spend in the moon's shadow. While the eclipse will
    last no more than four and a half minutes at any point on the ground, the
    planes will see an eclipse that lasts about 25% longer, over 6 minutes and
    22 seconds.

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    "By extending the duration of totality, we're increasing the duration of
    how much data we can acquire," said Shadia Habbal, a researcher at the
    University of Hawaii who leads of one of the WB-57 eclipse
    experiments.

    Habbal's experiment will fly spectrometers—which record specific


    wavelengths of light and cameras. The instruments will measure the
    temperature and chemical composition of the corona and coronal mass
    ejections, which are large bursts of solar material. With this data,
    scientists aim to better understand the structure of the corona and
    identify the source of the solar wind, the constant stream of particles
    emitted by the sun.

    Habbal hopes the results of their study will help differentiate between
    different competing models of how the corona is heated. "This light is
    our best probe short of sticking a thermometer in the corona," Habbal
    said.

    For another team, led by Amir Caspi at the Southwest Research Institute
    in Boulder, Colorado, it's not their first time chasing eclipses by plane.
    Caspi led a previous trailblazing experiment with the WB-57s during the
    2017 total solar eclipse that crossed America from sea to sea. Images
    taken from the jet were used to study the structure of the corona.

    That time was the first the jets had ever been used to study an eclipse.
    This time, an improved camera setup will allow measurements in more
    wavelengths from infrared to visible light that will hopefully reveal new
    information about structures in the middle and lower corona. The
    observations, taken with a high-resolution, high-speed camera, could also
    help study a dust ring that circles the sun and help search for asteroids
    that may orbit near the sun.

    "There isn't a lot of data of the sun at some of the wavelengths we'll be

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    studying," Caspi said. "We don't know what we'll find, so it's extra
    exciting to be making these measurements."

    A third experiment will study the effects of the moon's shadow on the
    ionosphere using an instrument called an ionosonde, which was designed
    at JHU APL. An ionosonde functions like a simple radar. The device
    sends out high-frequency radio signals and listens for their echoes
    rebounding off the ionosphere, which allows the researchers to measure
    how charged the ionosphere is.

    "The eclipse basically serves as a controlled experiment," said Bharat


    Kunduri, leader of the ionosphere project and a research assistant
    professor at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia. "It gives us an
    opportunity to understand how changes in solar radiation can impact the
    ionosphere, which can in turn impact some of these technologies like
    radar and GPS that we rely on in our daily lives."

    Provided by NASA

    Citation: Scientists pursue the total solar eclipse with NASA jet planes (2024, April 4) retrieved
    4 April 2024 from https://phys.org/news/2024-04-scientists-pursue-total-solar-eclipse.html

    This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private
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