{"id":97780,"date":"2017-08-14T15:18:00","date_gmt":"2017-08-14T19:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/?migration=converted-node-407477"},"modified":"2023-07-26T14:57:34","modified_gmt":"2023-07-26T18:57:34","slug":"studying-the-suns-atmosphere-with-the-total-solar-eclipse-of-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/missions\/hinode\/studying-the-suns-atmosphere-with-the-total-solar-eclipse-of-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"Studying the Sun\u2019s Atmosphere with the Total Solar Eclipse of 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>A total solar eclipse happens somewhere on Earth about once every 18 months. But because Earth\u2019s surface is mostly ocean, most eclipses are visible over land for only a short time, if at all. The <a href=\"https:\/\/eclipse2017.nasa.gov\/\" rel=\"noopener\">total solar eclipse of Aug. 21, 2017<\/a>, is different \u2013 its path stretches over land for nearly 90 minutes, giving scientists an unprecedented opportunity to make scientific measurements from the ground.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When the Moon moves in front of the Sun on Aug. 21, it will completely obscure the Sun\u2019s bright face. This happens because of a <a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/feature\/goddard\/2017\/nasa-satellites-ready-when-stars-and-planets-align\/\">celestial coincidence<\/a> \u2013 though the Sun is about 400 times wider than the Moon, the Moon on Aug. 21 will be about 400 times closer to us, making their apparent size in the sky almost equal. In fact, the Moon will appear slightly larger than the Sun to us, allowing it to totally obscure the Sun for more than two and a half minutes in some locations. If they had the exact same apparent size, the total eclipse would only last for an instant.<\/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=\"2 Minutes, 6 Hands, 1 Chance\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/z9b7h47vBbg?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\">A total solar eclipse lets NASA researchers try out technology that could one day aid in the development of future missions, however, they must flawlessly complete the experiment in a few short minutes, two to be exact.<br><strong>Credits: NASA\u2019s Goddard Space Flight Center\/Genna Duberstein<\/strong><br><a href=\"https:\/\/svs.gsfc.nasa.gov\/12636\" rel=\"noopener\">To download the video<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The eclipse will reveal the Sun\u2019s outer atmosphere, called the corona, which is otherwise too dim to see next to the bright Sun. Though we study the corona from space with instruments called coronagraphs \u2013 which create artificial eclipses by using a metal disk to block out the Sun\u2019s face \u2013 there are still some lower regions of the Sun\u2019s atmosphere that are only visible during total solar eclipses. Because of a property of light called diffraction, the disk of a coronagraph must block out both the Sun\u2019s surface and a large part of the corona in order to get crisp pictures. But because the Moon is so far away from Earth \u2013 about 230,000 miles away during the eclipse \u2013 diffraction isn\u2019t an issue, and scientists are able to measure the lower corona in fine detail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>NASA is taking advantage of the Aug. 21, 2017, eclipse by funding <a href=\"https:\/\/eclipse2017.nasa.gov\/science-ground\" rel=\"noopener\">11 ground-based science investigations<\/a> across the United States. Six of these focus on the Sun\u2019s corona.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The source of space weather <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Our Sun is an active star that constantly releases a flow of charged particles and magnetic fields known as the solar wind. This solar wind, along with discrete burps of solar material known as coronal mass ejections, can influence Earth\u2019s magnetic field, send particles raining down into our atmosphere, and \u2013 when intense \u2013 impact satellites. Though we\u2019re able to track these solar eruptions when they leave the Sun, the key to predicting when they\u2019ll happen could lie in studying their origins in the magnetic energy stored in the lower corona.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A team led by Philip Judge of the High Altitude Observatory in Boulder, Colorado, will use new instruments to study the magnetic field structure of the corona by imaging this atmospheric layer during the eclipse. The instruments will image the corona to see fingerprints left by the magnetic field in visible and near-infrared wavelengths from a mountaintop near Casper, Wyoming. One instrument, POLARCAM, uses new technology based on the eyes of the mantis shrimp to obtain novel polarization measurements, and will serve as a proof-of-concept for use in future space missions. The research will enhance our understanding of how the Sun generates space weather.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe want to compare between the infrared data we\u2019re capturing and the ultraviolet data recorded by NASA\u2019s Solar Dynamics Observatory and JAXA\/NASA\u2019s Hinode satellite,\u201d said Judge. \u201cThis work will confirm or refute our understanding of how light across the entire spectrum forms in the corona, perhaps helping to resolve some nagging disagreements.\u201d   <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The results from the camera will complement data from an airborne study imaging the corona in the infrared, as well as another ground-based infrared study led by Paul Bryans at the High Altitude Observatory. Bryans and his team will sit inside a trailer atop Casper Mountain in Wyoming, and point a specialized instrument at the eclipse. The instrument is a spectrometer, which collects light from the Sun and separates each wavelength of light, measuring their intensity. This particular spectrometer, called the NCAR Airborne Interferometer, will, for the first time, survey infrared light emitted by the solar corona.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThese studies are complementary. We will have the spectral information, which reveals the component wavelengths of light,\u201d said Bryans. \u201cAnd Philip Judge\u2019s team will have the spatial resolution to tell where certain features are coming from.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This novel data will help scientists characterize the corona\u2019s complex magnetic field \u2014 crucial information for understanding and eventually helping to forecast space weather events. The scientists will augment their study by analyzing their results alongside corresponding space-based observations from other instruments aboard NASA\u2019s Solar Dynamics Observatory and the joint NASA\/JAXA Hinode.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In Madras, Oregon, a team of NASA scientists led by Nat Gopalswamy at NASA\u2019s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, will point a new, specialized polarization camera at the Sun\u2019s faint outer atmosphere, the corona, taking several-second exposures at four selected wavelengths in just over two minutes. Their images will capture data on the temperature and speed of solar material in the corona. Currently these measurements can only be obtained from Earth-based observations during a total solar eclipse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To study the corona at times and locations outside a total eclipse, scientists use coronagraphs, which mimic eclipses by using solid disks to block the Sun\u2019s face much the way the Moon\u2019s shadow does. Typical coronagraphs use a polarizer filter in a mechanism that turns through three angles, one after the other, for each wavelength filter. The new camera is designed to eliminate this clunky, time-consuming process, by incorporating thousands of tiny polarization filters to read light polarized in different directions simultaneously. Testing this instrument is a crucial step toward improving coronagraphs and ultimately, our understanding of the corona \u2014 the very root of the solar radiation that fills up Earth\u2019s space environment.<\/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\/2017\/08\/soho_cme.gif\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"540\" height=\"540\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/soho_cme.gif?w=540\" class=\"attachment-2048x2048 size-2048x2048\" alt=\"SOHO image of sun's corona\" 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\">NASA\u2019s Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, or SOHO, constantly observes the outer regions of the Sun\u2019s corona. During the Aug. 21, 2017, eclipse, scientists will observe the lower regions of the sun\u2019s corona to better understand the source of solar explosions called coronal mass ejections, as well as the unexpectedly high temperatures in the corona.<\/div><div class=\"hds-credits\"><strong><em>Credits: ESA\/NASA\/SOHO<\/em><\/strong><\/div><\/figcaption><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n<p><strong>Unexplained coronal heating <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The answer to another mystery also lies in the lower corona: It is thought to hold the secrets to a longstanding question of how the solar atmosphere reaches such unexpectedly high temperatures. The Sun\u2019s corona is much hotter than its surface, which is counterintuitive, as the Sun\u2019s energy is generated by nuclear fusion at its core. Usually temperatures go down consistently as you move away from that heat source, the same way that it gets cooler as you move away from a fire \u2013 but not so in the case of the Sun\u2019s atmosphere. Scientists suspect that detailed measurements of the way particles move in the lower corona could help them uncover the mechanism that produces this enormous heating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Padma Yanamandra-Fisher of the Space Science Institute will lead an experiment to take images of the lower corona in polarized light. Polarized light is when all the light waves are oriented the same way, and it is produced when ordinary, unpolarized light passes through a medium \u2013 in this case, the electrons of the inner solar corona.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cBy measuring the polarized brightness of the inner solar corona and using numerical modeling, we can extract the number of electrons along the line of sight,\u201d said Yanamandra-Fisher. \u201cEssentially, we\u2019re mapping the distribution of free electrons in the inner solar corona.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mapping the inner corona in polarized light to reveal the density of elections is a critical factor in modeling coronal waves, one possible source of coronal heating. Along with unpolarized light images collected by the NASA-funded citizen science project called Citizen CATE, which will gather eclipse imagery from across the country, these polarized light measurements could help scientists address the question of the solar corona\u2019s unusually high temperatures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Shadia Habbal of the University of Hawaii\u2019s Institute for Astronomy in Honolulu will lead a team of scientists to image the Sun during the total solar eclipse. The eclipse\u2019s long path over land allows the team to image the Sun from five sites across four different states, about 600 miles apart, allowing them to track short-term changes in the corona and increasing the odds of good weather.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They will use spectrometers, which analyze the light emitted from different ionized elements in the corona. The scientists will also use unique filters to selectively image the corona in certain colors, which allows them to directly probe into the physics of the Sun\u2019s outer atmosphere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With this data, they can explore the composition and temperature of the corona, and measure the speed of particles flowing out from the Sun. Different colors correspond to different elements \u2014 nickel, iron and argon \u2014 that have lost electrons, or been ionized, in the corona\u2019s extreme heat, and each element ionizes at a specific temperature. By analyzing such information together, the scientists hope to better understand the processes that heat the corona.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Amir Caspi of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, and his team will use two of NASA\u2019s WB-57F research jets take observations from twin telescopes mounted on the noses of the planes. They will \u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00adcapture the clearest images of the Sun\u2019s outer atmosphere \u2014 the corona \u2014 to date and the first-ever thermal images of Mercury, revealing how temperature varies across the planet\u2019s surface. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/feature\/goddard\/2017\/chasing-the-total-solar-eclipse-from-nasa-s-wb-57f-jets\" rel=\"noopener\">Read more about this study here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>By Sarah Frazier<br>NASA\u2019s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Related:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/eclipse2017.nasa.gov\/\" rel=\"noopener\">NASA\u2019s Eclipse 2017 website<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/eclipse\" rel=\"noopener\">NASA\u2019s Eclipse news stories<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A total solar eclipse happens somewhere on Earth about once every 18 months. But because Earth\u2019s surface is mostly ocean, most eclipses are visible over land for only a short time, if at all. The total solar eclipse of Aug. 21, 2017, is different \u2013 its path stretches over land for nearly 90 minutes, giving [...]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":317,"featured_media":112329,"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":[3761,9457,2857,2837,3329,2711,2780,2774,3244],"news-tags":[],"internal-terms":[],"coauthors":[11284,10635],"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"Studying the Sun\u2019s Atmosphere with the Total Solar Eclipse of 2017","url":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/missions\/hinode\/studying-the-suns-atmosphere-with-the-total-solar-eclipse-of-2017\/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/missions\/hinode\/studying-the-suns-atmosphere-with-the-total-solar-eclipse-of-2017\/"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/soho_cme.gif?w=150&h=150&crop=1","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/soho_cme.gif"},"articleSection":"The Solar System","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Susannah Darling"},{"@type":"Person","name":"Sarah Frazier"}],"creator":["Susannah Darling","Sarah Frazier"],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"NASA","logo":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/themes\/nasa\/assets\/images\/nasa-logo.svg"},"keywords":["The Solar System","Skywatching","Eclipses","Solar Eclipses","2017 Solar Eclipse","Goddard Space Flight Center","Heliophysics","Heliophysics Division","Hinode (Solar B)","SOHO (Solar and Heliospheric Observatory)","Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO)"],"dateCreated":"2017-08-14T19:18:00Z","datePublished":"2017-08-14T19:18:00Z","dateModified":"2023-07-26T18:57:34Z"},"rendered":"<meta name=\"parsely-title\" content=\"Studying the Sun\u2019s Atmosphere with the Total Solar Eclipse of 2017\" \/>\n<meta name=\"parsely-link\" content=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/missions\/hinode\/studying-the-suns-atmosphere-with-the-total-solar-eclipse-of-2017\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"parsely-type\" content=\"post\" \/>\n<meta name=\"parsely-image-url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/soho_cme.gif?w=150&h=150&crop=1\" \/>\n<meta name=\"parsely-pub-date\" content=\"2017-08-14T19:18:00Z\" \/>\n<meta name=\"parsely-section\" content=\"The Solar System\" \/>\n<meta name=\"parsely-tags\" content=\"The Solar System,Skywatching,Eclipses,Solar Eclipses,2017 Solar Eclipse,Goddard Space Flight Center,Heliophysics,Heliophysics Division,Hinode (Solar B),SOHO (Solar and Heliospheric Observatory),Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO)\" \/>\n<meta name=\"parsely-author\" content=\"Susannah Darling\" \/>\n<meta name=\"parsely-author\" content=\"Sarah Frazier\" \/>","tracker_url":"https:\/\/cdn.parsely.com\/keys\/nasa.gov\/p.js"},"read_time":9,"time_ago":"7 years","featured_image":{"id":112329,"file":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/soho_cme.gif","title":"soho_cme","alt":"SOHO image of sun's corona","caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97780"}],"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\/317"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97780"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97780\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":385153,"href":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97780\/revisions\/385153"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97780"},{"taxonomy":"news-tags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-tags?post=97780"},{"taxonomy":"internal-terms","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/internal-terms?post=97780"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=97780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}