An Active Sun During a Total Eclipse
Explanation: Sometimes, a total eclipse of the Sun is an opportunity. Taking advantage of such, the above image shows the solar eclipse earlier this month [on November 11, 2013] as covered and uncovered by several different solar observatories. The innermost image shows the Sun in ultraviolet light as recorded over a few hours by the SWAP instrument aboard the PROBA2 mission in a sun-synchronous low Earth orbit. This image is surrounded by a ground-based eclipse image, reproduced in blue, taken from Gabon. Further out is a circularly blocked region used to artificially dim the central sun by the LASCO instrument aboard the Sun-orbiting SOHO spacecraft. The outermost image — showing the outflowing solar corona — was taken by LASCO ten minutes after the eclipse and shows an outflowing solar corona.
Over the past few weeks, our Sun has been showing an unusually high amount of sunspots, CMEs, and flares — activity that was generally expected as the Sun is currently going through Solar Maximum — the busiest part of its 11 year solar cycle. The above resultant image is a picturesque montage of many solar layers at once that allows solar astronomers to better match up active areas on or near the Sun’s surface with outflowing jets in the Sun’s corona.
Image Credit & Copyright: D. Seaton (ROB), A. Davis & J. M. Pasachoff (Williams College Eclipse Expedition), NRL, ESA, NASA, NatGeo
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My first impression was disbelief. It had to be a typographical error. The letter from Williams College that announced Astronomer Jay Pasachoff’s April 13 and 14 public programs, “Our Sun: From the Ground and From Space” and “The Great American Solar Eclipse,” also stated, “It will be his 66th solar eclipse.” I had encountered other prominent eclipse scientists and heard a number in the 30’s, a trophy number that involved traveling around the globe to eclipses wherever and whenever they occurred.
I attended Professor Pasachoff’s solar eclipse lecture with a view toward August 21, less than 4 months away, when all of us in North America will experience at least a partial eclipse of the sun. When asked if the note about his heading for his 66th was an error, he confirmed to me that he has “seen more solar eclipses than anyone ever.”
From his home base in Willamstown, Massachusetts, Pasachoff has spent much time over the past few years arranging for scientific observations during the upcoming eclipse, which will be the first to span the United States from coast to coast in 99 years, though a few eclipses have crossed parts of the country since then.
Through grant proposals approved by the National Science Foundation and the National Geographic Society, Pasachoff will fund colleagues from the U.S., Greece, Slovakia, Venezuela and elsewhere to conduct the research with him. Professor Pasachoff is planning and coordinating the entire expedition, which includes eight of his current undergraduate students, from almost as many states, and 16 Williams graduates who studied in the astronomy department.
The choice of a location from which to conduct eclipse research – and for anyone wishing to observe this pinnacle of natural wonders (see Resources, below) – is a precise study in itself. Pasachoff will base his expedition in Salem, Oregon, an observing spot chosen for a combination of favorable cloudiness statistics going back decades and the infrastructure available at Willamette University.
Pasachoff, with his colleagues and students, will mainly be studying the solar corona during the eclipse, especially how gas moves within it at over a million miles per hour, and how the corona changes over the sunspot cycle. The team will make measurements to help decide among theories of how the corona attains temperatures over a million degrees Fahrenheit and also study the effect of the abrupt shutting off of sunlight on the Earth’s atmosphere. What they discover about the solar corona, the sun’s outer atmosphere, also applies to the billions of other stars that are like our sun, but where the details of how the magnetic field shapes the gas can’t be studied up close.
To be stirred by the breadth of Jay Pasachoff’s work, go to http://totalsolareclipse.org and to the many books he has authored http://pasachoff.com
How to participate in The Great American Solar Eclipse:
Michael Zeller – maps, glasses, how-to for the upcoming total eclipse
http://www.eclipse2017.org/2017/zeiler.htm
10′ long map http://eclipse-maps.com/Eclipse-Maps/Welcome_files/2017_LongMap_125dpi.jpg
Path of total eclipse and partial eclipse zones https://www.greatamericaneclipse.com/nation/
Resources:
Jay Pasachoff – Astronomer and Author
Publications available at http://pasachoff.com
Eclipse Archive http://totalsolareclipse.org
Colors and Motions of the Sun video suitable for middle school to adults
Judy Isacoff
naturesturn.org