{"id":143503,"date":"2020-12-10T20:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-12-11T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/?migration=converted-node-466796"},"modified":"2023-07-26T16:02:35","modified_gmt":"2023-07-26T20:02:35","slug":"eclipse-2017-shines-light-on-the-sun-earth-connection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/solar-system\/skywatching\/eclipses\/solar-eclipses\/eclipse-2017-shines-light-on-the-sun-earth-connection\/","title":{"rendered":"Eclipse 2017 Shines Light on the Sun-Earth Connection"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Aug. 21, 2017, marked a unique opportunity for scientists in the contiguous U.S. \u2014 for the first time in nearly a century, a total solar eclipse would sweep coast to coast, providing scientists under the path of totality with a rare chance to study the Sun and Earth in uncommon ways. Now, scientists are sharing some of what they\u2019ve learned so far and their plans for science during future eclipses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One of the primary scientific advantages of a total solar eclipse is the way it reveals our star. With the Sun\u2019s face blocked out by the Moon, the outer atmosphere of the Sun \u2014 the corona, which is too faint to see when observed right next to the overwhelming brightness of the Sun\u2019s face \u2014 can shine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Star of the eclipse<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Scientists can study the corona in more limited ways outside of eclipses using instruments called coronagraphs. Coronagraphs create constant, artificial eclipses by using solid disks or spheres to block out the photosphere and reveal the corona. But because of a property of light called diffraction, coronagraphs must block out some parts of the lower corona in order to obtain a crisp image.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A natural total solar eclipse suffers from no such limitations: The very lowest reaches of the corona are visible, and in clear detail. Several NASA-funded experiments took advantage of this rare look at the lower corona on Aug. 21, 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A team led by Nat Gopalswamy, a solar scientist at NASA\u2019s Goddard Space Flight Center, tested <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/feature\/goddard\/2017\/studying-the-sun-s-atmosphere-with-the-total-solar-eclipse-of-2017\" rel=\"noopener\">a new instrument<\/a> during the 2017 total solar eclipse \u2014 a camera that could capture multiple wavelengths of polarized light from the Sun\u2019s corona simultaneously, without the need for a moving part that rotates through different types of polarization filters. Their experiment showed that such an instrument could be effective in studying the Sun\u2019s corona \u2014 a boon for spaceflight, where moving parts such a polarization wheel add more potential failure points to a mission. The team\u2019s work has already been incorporated into an instrument that flew on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/feature\/goddard\/2019\/nasa-bitse-solar-scope-ready-for-balloon-flight-new-mexico-coronagraph-solar-wind-eclipse\" rel=\"noopener\">BITSE scientific balloon<\/a> in 2018, and continued work on the concept could make it ready to potentially fly as a space-borne instrument.<\/p>\n\n\n<div id=\"\" class=\"hds-media hds-module wp-block-image\"><div class=\"margin-left-auto margin-right-auto nasa-block-align-inline\"><div class=\"hds-media-wrapper margin-left-auto margin-right-auto\"><figure class=\"hds-media-inner hds-cover-wrapper hds-media-ratio-none \"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/polarization.gif\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/polarization.gif?w=1024\" class=\"attachment-2048x2048 size-2048x2048\" alt=\"In each image, the corona appears as a fuzzy white ring around a black disk, set against a black background. It appears slightly different from image to image, sometimes dimmer and smaller, sometimes brighter and larger. White specks appear throughout one of the images. \" style=\"transform: scale(1); transform-origin: 50% 50%; object-position: 50% 50%; object-fit: cover;\" block_context=\"nasa-block\" loading=\"eager\" \/><\/a><\/figure><figcaption class=\"hds-caption padding-y-2\"><div class=\"hds-caption-text p-sm margin-0\">A team led by Nat Gopalswamy of NASA\u2019s Goddard Space Flight Center used a novel detector to image the Sun\u2019s corona in multiple wavelengths of polarized light \u2014 without the need for a moving polarization filter \u2014 during the total solar eclipse on Aug. 21, 2017. The white pixels in some of the images are an artifact of the type of detector used, and are not actual features. <\/div><div class=\"hds-credits\"><strong>Credits: NASA\/Gopalswamy et al.<\/strong><\/div><\/figcaption><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n<p>In addition to acting as a technological proof of concept, their data also revealed some intriguing questions. In particular, differences in temperature throughout the Sun\u2019s corona may shed light on the formation and behaviors of different structures within the corona. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Amir Caspi and team used a pair of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/feature\/goddard\/2017\/chasing-the-total-solar-eclipse-from-nasa-s-wb-57f-jets\/\" rel=\"noopener\">retrofitted WB-57F jet planes<\/a> to chase the eclipse in 2017, giving them a longer observation time. <a href=\"https:\/\/iopscience.iop.org\/article\/10.3847\/1538-4357\/ab89a8#apjab89a8s5\" rel=\"noopener\">Early results<\/a> from the gathered data indicate a few promising features for further study, some of which could help illuminate more about the dynamics of the corona, including the formation of structures linked to solar storms \u2014 massive clouds of solar material that are launched into space \u2014 and the corona\u2019s counterintuitively high temperatures. Their analysis continues \u2014 with the help of several student scientists \u2014 and the team is hoping to share more research soon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Shadia Habbal of the University of Hawaii\u2019s Institute for Astronomy in Honolulu led a team to image the Sun from multiple sites during the 2017 total solar eclipse, spread out across the long path of totality. The team used their measurements at different wavelengths of light to trace changes in the corona\u2019s temperature throughout the eclipse, <a href=\"https:\/\/iopscience.iop.org\/article\/10.3847\/1538-4357\/ab5e34\/meta\" rel=\"noopener\">revealing changes<\/a> caused by a coronal mass ejection traveling through the corona at the time of the eclipse. The team\u2019s data from the 2017 eclipse has also played a role in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2020\/06\/05\/ifa-mysteries-of-sun-corona\/\" rel=\"noopener\">larger study<\/a>, which examined the changing shape of the Sun\u2019s magnetic field over the past two decades. Tracking such shifts helps scientists improve computer models of the solar atmosphere \u2014 powerful tools for understanding the Sun\u2019s cycles of activity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Paul Bryans and Philip Judge, both of the High Altitude Observatory in Boulder, Colorado, ran complementary experiments to study the solar corona in infrared light. Along with data from other High Altitude Observatory experiments, their measurements <a href=\"https:\/\/link.springer.com\/article\/10.1007\/s11207-019-1550-3\" rel=\"noopener\">revealed unexpected signatures of helium<\/a> from the corona throughout the eclipse. The teams continued their work with further experiments during the July 2, 2019, total solar eclipse over Chile, with analysis of this work in progress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/feature\/goddard\/2017\/studying-the-sun-s-atmosphere-with-the-total-solar-eclipse-of-2017\" rel=\"noopener\">Read about more Sun-focused studies from the August 2017 total solar eclipse.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>The Sun-Earth connection<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>A total solar eclipse also provides a chance to study Earth\u2019s atmosphere under an unusual circumstance: the sudden, localized onset of nighttime conditions, outside the usual day-night cycle. This abrupt darkness over a narrow path of land can help scientists tease apart just how the Sun\u2019s energy affects the atmosphere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A team led by Phil Erickson of the MIT Haystack Observatory used radar and GPS measurements to study the response of the electrically-charged upper atmosphere, a region called the ionosphere, to the total solar eclipse. The charged particles of the ionosphere \u2014 created when neutral atoms are split apart by the Sun\u2019s intense radiation \u2014 respond to both conditions in space and changes in Earth\u2019s lower atmosphere, making their behavior unpredictable. Changes in the ionosphere can disrupt communications and navigation signals, so understanding how it responds to the Sun\u2019s energy is a key part of safeguarding our technology.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Erickson\u2019s team has published several findings based on their 2017 eclipse data \u2014 from changes in electron density more than 600 miles away from the path of the total eclipse to differences in the way the ionosphere is disturbed based on the time of day at which the eclipse crossed over. As part of this work, MIT Haystack researcher Shunrong Zhang and colleagues found bow waves \u2014 similar to those that ripple out from a boat moving through water \u2014 in the ionosphere, rippling out from the path of the eclipse. These traveling disturbances in the ionosphere can be linked to some of the space weather events that affect human technology. Erickson and team look forward to future eclipses to further explore the phenomena they observed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Ionospheric "bow waves" during the August eclipse (MIT Haystack Observatory)\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/8vivMEVBwys?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Data gathered by teams from the MIT Haystack Observatory show bow waves rippling through the ionosphere during and after the total solar eclipse on Aug. 21, 2017.<br><strong><em>Credits: MIT Haystack Observatory\/Zhang et al.<\/em><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Another team led by Bob Marshall from the University of Colorado Boulder relied on very-low frequency radio waves to measure changes in the lowest and least dense region of the ionosphere. <a href=\"https:\/\/ieeexplore.ieee.org\/abstract\/document\/8734830\" rel=\"noopener\">Their work<\/a> has shed new light on how the electron content \u2014 which is influenced by the composition of the atmosphere \u2014 at even the lowest reaches of the ionosphere can impact the way that such radio waves travel throughout the ionosphere. The team hopes to perform more very-low frequency radio experiments during future eclipses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Greg Earle of Virginia Tech led a study of the ionosphere\u2019s response to the eclipse using a combination of ionosondes \u2014 a specialized transceiver technology for studying the ionosphere \u2014 along with radar and GPS data. The team\u2019s data have shown that wind speed and direction are crucial parts of understanding the ionosphere\u2019s response to sudden changes like the eclipse. Several students have used data from the experiment in dissertations.  <\/p>\n\n\n<div id=\"\" class=\"hds-media hds-module wp-block-image\"><div class=\"margin-left-auto margin-right-auto nasa-block-align-inline\"><div class=\"hds-media-wrapper margin-left-auto margin-right-auto\"><figure class=\"hds-media-inner hds-cover-wrapper hds-media-ratio-none \"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/epiceclipse_large_0.gif\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/epiceclipse_large_0.gif?w=1280\" class=\"attachment-2048x2048 size-2048x2048\" alt=\"A series of satellite images of Earth show the Earth rotating and a dark oval-shaped shadow moving over North America from left (west) to right (east).\" style=\"transform: scale(1); transform-origin: 50% 50%; object-position: 50% 50%; object-fit: cover;\" block_context=\"nasa-block\" \/><\/a><\/figure><figcaption class=\"hds-caption padding-y-2\"><div class=\"hds-caption-text p-sm margin-0\">NASA\u2019s Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera, or EPIC \u2014 aboard NOAA\u2019s Deep Space Climate Observatory \u2014 tracked the path of the total solar eclipse across North America on Aug. 21, 2017. NASA scientists are using these observations, along with ground-based measurements, to better understand how clouds affect Earth\u2019s energy balance. <\/div><div class=\"hds-credits\"><strong>Credits: NASA EPIC Team<\/strong><\/div><\/figcaption><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n<p>A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/feature\/goddard\/2017\/nasa-looks-to-the-solar-eclipse-to-help-understand-the-earth-s-energy-system\" rel=\"noopener\">project led by Guoyong Wen<\/a> of NASA Goddard used measurements of light reduction during the eclipse to improve models of how clouds affect the amount of energy that reaches and leaves Earth. Their measurements are helping scientists understand how the presence of clouds, and their optical thickness, can impact the amount of sunlight and energy that reaches Earth\u2019s surface.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/feature\/goddard\/2017\/day-to-night-and-back-again-earth-s-ionosphere-during-the-total-solar-eclipse\" rel=\"noopener\">Read more about 2017 eclipse experiments focused on Earth\u2019s atmosphere.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:46px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\">\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left\"><strong><em>Dec. 14, 2020, Total Solar Eclipse<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left\"><em>Total solar eclipses happen when the Moon lines up just right between the Sun and Earth, casting its shadow on Earth\u2019s surface. Because the Moon\u2019s orbit is tilted, total solar eclipses don\u2019t happen during each lunar orbit, though there is a total solar eclipse somewhere on Earth about once every 18 months. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left\"><em>Chile and Argentina will experience a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/eclipse\/2020-eclipse-in-south-america\" rel=\"noopener\">total solar eclipse on Dec. 14, 2020<\/a>. NASA will share live images of the eclipse starting at 9:40 a.m. EST on Dec. 14 on NASA TV and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/nasalive\" rel=\"noopener\">the agency\u2019s website<\/a>, along with a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/press-release\/nasa-to-provide-spanish-language-coverage-livestream-of-solar-eclipse\" rel=\"noopener\">narrated show in Spanish<\/a> starting at 10:30 a.m. EST. <a href=\"https:\/\/ciencia.nasa.gov\/eclipse-de-2020-en-america-del-sur\" rel=\"noopener\">M\u00e1s informaci\u00f3n en espa\u00f1ol sobre el eclipse solar total del 14 de diciembre<b>.<\/b><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left\"><em>People in North America will have a chance to see a <a href=\"https:\/\/solarsystem.nasa.gov\/eclipses\/2024\/apr-8-total\/overview\/\" data-type=\"URL\" rel=\"noopener\">total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024<\/a>. The path of totality for the 2024 eclipse stretches across parts of Mexico, the U.S. and Canada. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:42px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Related Links<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/feature\/goddard\/2017\/eclipse-2017-science-from-the-moon-s-shadow\" rel=\"noopener\">Eclipse 2017: Science from the Moon\u2019s Shadow<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>By <a href=\"mailto:sarah.frazier@nasa.gov\">Sarah Frazier<\/a><br><a href=\"http:\/\/nasa.gov\/goddard\" rel=\"noopener\">NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center<\/a>, Greenbelt, Md.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Aug. 21, 2017, marked a unique opportunity for scientists in the contiguous U.S. \u2014 for the first time in nearly a century, a total solar eclipse would sweep coast to coast, providing scientists under the path of totality with a rare chance to study the Sun and Earth in uncommon ways. Now, scientists are sharing [...]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":248,"featured_media":151890,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nasa_hds_core_meta_l10n":"en-US","nasa_hds_core_meta_article_editor":"","nasa_hds_core_meta_article_contacts":[],"nasa_hds_core_meta_article_topic":"","nasa_hds_core_meta_linked_locations":[],"nasa_hds_core_meta_article_related_articles":[],"hds_migrate_meta_pr_release_id":"","hds_migrate_meta_pr_release_type":"","nasa_hds_core_meta_location_x":"","nasa_hds_core_meta_location_y":"","nasa_hds_core_meta_gallery_images":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[3761,9457,3244,11310],"news-tags":[],"internal-terms":[10596],"coauthors":[10635,10220],"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"Eclipse 2017 Shines Light on the Sun-Earth Connection","url":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/solar-system\/skywatching\/eclipses\/solar-eclipses\/eclipse-2017-shines-light-on-the-sun-earth-connection\/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/solar-system\/skywatching\/eclipses\/solar-eclipses\/eclipse-2017-shines-light-on-the-sun-earth-connection\/"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/polarization.gif?w=150&h=150&crop=1","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/polarization.gif"},"articleSection":"The Solar System","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sarah Frazier"},{"@type":"Person","name":"Vanessa Thomas"}],"creator":["Sarah Frazier","Vanessa Thomas"],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"NASA","logo":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/themes\/nasa\/assets\/images\/nasa-logo.svg"},"keywords":["The Solar System","The Sun","2017 Solar Eclipse","Eclipses","Solar Eclipses"],"dateCreated":"2020-12-11T00:00:00Z","datePublished":"2020-12-11T00:00:00Z","dateModified":"2023-07-26T20:02:35Z"},"rendered":"<meta name=\"parsely-title\" content=\"Eclipse 2017 Shines Light on the Sun-Earth Connection\" \/>\n<meta name=\"parsely-link\" content=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/solar-system\/skywatching\/eclipses\/solar-eclipses\/eclipse-2017-shines-light-on-the-sun-earth-connection\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"parsely-type\" content=\"post\" \/>\n<meta name=\"parsely-image-url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/polarization.gif?w=150&h=150&crop=1\" \/>\n<meta name=\"parsely-pub-date\" content=\"2020-12-11T00:00:00Z\" \/>\n<meta name=\"parsely-section\" content=\"The Solar System\" \/>\n<meta name=\"parsely-tags\" content=\"The Solar System,The Sun,2017 Solar Eclipse,Eclipses,Solar Eclipses\" \/>\n<meta name=\"parsely-author\" content=\"Sarah Frazier\" \/>\n<meta name=\"parsely-author\" content=\"Vanessa Thomas\" \/>","tracker_url":"https:\/\/cdn.parsely.com\/keys\/nasa.gov\/p.js"},"read_time":8,"time_ago":"4 years","featured_image":{"id":151890,"file":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/polarization.gif","title":"polarization","alt":"In each image, the corona appears as a fuzzy white ring around a black disk, set against a black background. It appears slightly different from image to image, sometimes dimmer and smaller, sometimes brighter and larger. White specks appear throughout one of the images.","caption":"A team led by Nat Gopalswamy of NASA\u2019s Goddard Space Flight Center used a novel detector to image the Sun\u2019s corona in multiple wavelengths of polarized light \u2014 without the need for a moving polarization filter \u2014 during the total solar eclipse on Aug. 21, 2017. The white pixels in some of the images are an artifact of the type of detector used, and are not actual features. "},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143503"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/248"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143503"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143503\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":445621,"href":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143503\/revisions\/445621"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143503"},{"taxonomy":"news-tags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-tags?post=143503"},{"taxonomy":"internal-terms","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/internal-terms?post=143503"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=143503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}