Ground-based cameras must contend with clouds and atmospheric interference, while space-based cameras can return only limited data. Flying at altitude along the eclipse path avoids the clouds and extends the observation window. For anyone standing directly beneath the shadow, totality will last 2 minutes 18 seconds. By flying at 460mph along the eclipse’s path, the pilot can extend totality to nearly 3 minutes, giving more time to observe the blotted out sun.<\/p>\n
The aircraft will climb north toward Greenland, then bank south on a gently curving course 40 miles off the Icelandic coast. As the plane cruises at 50,000 feet, the moon’s shadow will race up from behind, crossing the ocean below at more than 2,000mph. The pilot will aim to reach the point of greatest eclipse at the moment the shadow catches up. Hidden in the nose cone of the WB-57 aircraft are four cameras that will take dozens of pictures a second of the occluded sun in different wavelengths of light, capturing looping ribbons of plasma called prominences and magnetic explosions called nanoflares.<\/p>\n
Cary Klemm, a sensor equipment operator at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston who has flown eclipse missions before, described the experience at high altitude. “The big difference is that in the cockpit of an aircraft at 50,000 feet, it’s very bright in the sun. There are no clouds above you, and then all of a sudden, you’re hit with this slam of shadow,” he said. “You feel the temperature drop off; you’ll notice that you need more light from your instruments, and it’s kind of a weird, eerie shadow that you’re surrounded by.”<\/p>\n
Dr Amir Caspi, principal investigator on the mission at Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, said the flight would gather terabytes of information. Each nanoflare releases thousands of atomic bombs’ worth of energy as they go off around the sun. The flares at least partly explain why the corona reaches more than 1,000,000C while the surface is a mere 6,000C. The WB-57 is based on the English Electric Canberra bomber and flies above the clouds in the stratosphere.<\/p>\n
Caspi said the science reaches beyond the eclipse itself. “Understanding space weather is critical for us as a technological species, and it starts with understanding the processes at the sun,” he said, referring to the barrage of energetic particles and radiation that are hazardous to astronauts, satellites and even power grids and communications on Earth. He added that eclipses also carry meaning for those who witness them. “If you’re part of that rare group, you’re connected to the Earth and the sun and the solar system. It’s mind-blowing.”<\/p>\n
The flight is due to take off after lunch on Wednesday, targeting the point of greatest eclipse. The four nose cone cameras will record the corona at the instant the shadow overtakes the aircraft.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ground-based cameras must contend with clouds and atmospheric interference, while space-based cameras can return only limited data. Flying at altitude along the eclipse path avoids the clouds and extends the observation window. For anyone standing directly beneath the shadow, totality will last 2 minutes 18 seconds. By flying at 460mph along the eclipse’s path, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":64620,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-64619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64619"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64619"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64619\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}