On Monday, April 8, 2024, the total solar eclipse, which will cross North America, passing over Mexico, the United States and Canada, will be monitored by NASA researchers with planes and rockets.
National Aeronautical and Space Administration PHOTO: Pexels
NASA's WB-57 aircraft equipped with scientific instruments will fly at high altitudes to get a clear view of the Sun's outer atmosphere.
Three rockets will also be launched from NASA's Wallops Facility in Virginia before, during and after the eclipse to measure the sun's impact on Earth's upper atmosphere, known as the ionosphere.
The study of such a phenomenon aims to solve some mysteries of the sun, especially since during an eclipse the atmosphere is much warmer than the surface of the sun, but scientists do not know why, according to CNN.
On Monday, April 8, 2024, the total solar eclipse will cross North America, passing over Mexico, the United States, and Canada. The phenomenon will be visible in the USA and Mexico.
The total solar eclipse will begin over the South Pacific Ocean. Weather permitting, the first location in continental North America to experience totality is the Pacific coast of Mexico around 11:07 am PDT.
The event will be visible to millions of people. From the US territory alone, it will be able to be watched by more than 32 million Americans who will follow the path that the shadow of the Moon will travel during the eclipse, according to NASA.
Total eclipses are “rare” and represent a “incredible scientific opportunity“, Pam Melroy, associate administrator at NASA, emphasized recently in a press conference. The American space agency will be in the foreground, especially with the launch of sounding rockets, reports Agerpres.
Scientists also want to study changes in the upper part of the Earth's atmosphere, the ionosphere. This is where most of the communication signals pass. “Disturbances in this layer can cause problems for our GPS and communications”indicated Kelly Korreck, responsible at NASA.
Eclipses cause surprising behavior in animals – for example, giraffes have been seen galloping, and roosters and crickets start singing.
In addition to light, a drop in temperatures and wind intensity can be recorded, phenomena to which animals are sensitive.
Andrew Farnsworth, a researcher at Cornell University's Laboratory of Ornithology, studies this effect on birds. He uses weather radars to detect creatures in flight.
During the previous eclipse in the United States, in August 2017, researchers observed “a reduction in the number of living things in flight,” he explained.
This eclipse led to the cessation of diurnal behaviors (insects or birds remained on the ground), but without triggering nocturnal behavior, such as the flight of bats or migratory birds, he explained.
These studies are “important for understanding how animals perceive the world” surrounding, emphasized the expert.
