Observations of the eclipse on April 20 were preparation for the Continental Americas Native American CATE Experiment (CATE) ahead of the total solar eclipse that will cross the continental United States next year, on April 8, 2024. CATE 2024 will use a network of 35 national teams of scientists stationed along the route to make a continuous high-definition film The resolution is 60 minutes for the eclipse. Credit: SwRI/Citizen CATE 2024/Dan Seaton
Scientists from the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) led a team on a unique Citizen Continental-America Telescopic Eclipse (CATE) experiment to image the sun’s outer atmosphere, the corona, during a brief solar eclipse on the far side of Earth. Using four platforms in the northwest corner of Australia, the team successfully observed the million-degree solar corona in the April 20 eclipse seen from the Exmouth Peninsula. The Australian eclipse is a unique science opportunity and training exercise for program leadership in preparation for the 2024 US eclipse.
The CATE 2024 team traveled nearly 10,000 miles for one full minute to observe the sun’s corona from the unique perspective offered by a total solar eclipse. These phenomena allow scientists to view the complex and dynamic outer atmosphere in ways that are not possible or practical by any other means, opening new windows to our understanding of the solar corona. SwRI is leading the Citizen CATE 2024 Experiment, a large-scale science outreach initiative that will make a continuous 60-minute high-definition movie during the April 8, 2024 solar eclipse over the United States. CATE 2024 will use a network of 35 teams of citizen scientists representing local communities within the eclipse shadow path.
“Although this was a very short eclipse, our team of community scientists performed flawlessly and captured fantastic images of the structure of the solar corona,” said Dr. Amir Kaspi, principal scientist at SwRI in Boulder, Colorado, and leader of the SwRI Institute in Boulder, Colorado. dribbling”. CATE 2024 project.
The observations obtained by the team will allow scientists to study the intricacies of the sun’s corona including its intricate shape, how it changes over time, or what causes the corona to reach temperatures of millions of degrees Fahrenheit. Today’s photos from Australia will also help the team improve their experimental procedures for the massive community effort distributed in the United States next year.
A team of researchers from SwRI, NSO, NCAR, the University of Northern Colorado, Rice University, Indiana University and the University of Maine observed a rare hybrid eclipse on April 20 from four platforms on the Exmouth Peninsula, while tracking the eclipse through parts of Australia and Indonesia. Credit: SwRI/Citizen CATE 2024/Dan Seaton
“This eclipse provided the perfect opportunity to test our equipment and procedures, and to train our community leaders for the upcoming eclipse in 2024,” Caspi said. “When it comes to preparations for this kind of major effort, there is no substitute for the real thing.”
SwRI leads the Citizen CATE 2024 project, and includes the National Center for Atmospheric Research, the National Solar Observatory, the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado Boulder, and the Space Science Institute. In addition to its science goals, the project aims to engage the many unique and diverse communities along the path of the eclipse as an integral part of major scientific research efforts.
“Total solar eclipses provide wonderful opportunities to bring together the public and science,” said Dr. Carrie Black, National Solar Observatory Program Officer in the Division of Astronomy of the US National Science Foundation. “The Citizen CATE 2024 project leverages the public value of science to create a lasting educational impact for both the scientific and local communities.”
“Citizen CATE is part of a growing family of citizen science projects at NASA preparing for the Heliophysics Big Year initiative in 2023-2024, inspiring joy and curiosity along with opportunities for participatory science,” said Dr. Elizabeth McDonald, Citizen Science Strategic Working Group. excellent.” NASA lead.
The Citizen CATE 2024 project produced this false color image of the solar corona during the 2023 total solar eclipse from Exmouth, Western Australia. The image combines two intersecting angles of polarization, which are indicated by the color. Protrusions, rings, and streamers can be easily seen in this high-resolution image. Credit: SwRI/Citizen CATE 2024/Dan Seaton
The current project builds on that of the first Citizen CATE experiment, which used 68 stations to observe the August 2017 total solar eclipse that spanned the entire continental United States. CATE 2024 expands the science goals by measuring polarized light and interacts with teams across the new eclipse path. Dr. Sara Kovac, a 2017 CATE participant and now a postdoctoral researcher at SwRI, serves as project manager for CATE 2024.
“Participating at CATE as an undergraduate has inspired me to pursue a career in heliophysics,” said Kovac. “After seven years and one Ph.D., I’m on the professional side of planning an eclipse expedition, and it’s exciting to share that passion with the next generation of young scientists.”
The 2023 Australian monitoring effort includes team members from SwRI, NSO, NCAR, University of Northern Colorado, Rice University, Indiana University and University of Maine.
The project will begin recruiting teams from eclipse path communities in the fall of 2023. Interested parties can find more information and a contact form on the project’s website, https://eclipse.boulder.swri.edu.
For more information visit https://www.swri.org/heliophysics.
the quote: Team successfully observed Australian eclipse in preparation for 2024 US eclipse (2023, April 20), Retrieved April 20, 2023 from https://phys.org/news/2023-04-team-successfully-australian-eclipse.html
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