Strange animal behaviors, a rarely observable solar corona and even possible effects on humans. These are some of the aspects in which scientists will work intensively this Monday to collect valuable data about the solar eclipse that will pass through the United States.
Total eclipses are “rare” and represent an “incredible scientific opportunity,” Pam Melroy, associate administrator of NASA, recently stressed during a press conference. The US space agency will lead the observation, in particular with the launch of sounding rockets.
This is what researchers plan to study
When the Moon completely covers the Sun’s central disk, the outer layer of its atmosphere, called the solar corona, will be visible “in a very special way,” Pam Melroy said. However, this is an area “that we still don’t fully understand.”
Coronal heat increases with distance from the Sun’s surface, a contradictory phenomenon that scientists struggle to explain.
It is also in this upper region where solar flares or the prominences of immense plasma structures occur.
During an eclipse, the lowest part of the corona is better visible than using a special instrument called a coronagraph, says Shannon Schmoll, an astronomer at Michigan State University. So this is a golden opportunity to study it.
There is something that especially worries scientists: the Sun is currently near its peak of activity, which returns every 11 years. Therefore, “the chances of observing something incredible are very high,” rejoiced Pam Melroy.
Scientists will also study changes in the upper part of Earth’s atmosphere, the ionosphere.
A large part of the communications signals pass through here. “Disruptions in this layer can cause problems for our GPS and our communications,” said Kelly Korreck, a NASA official.
However, the ionosphere is affected by the Sun: its particles become charged with electricity under its radiation during the day.
Three small sounding rockets will be launched before, during and just after the eclipse from Virginia, in the eastern United States, to measure these changes.
The light fall caused by the eclipse, faster and more localized than a sunset, should allow us to learn more about how light affects the ionosphere, to better predict possible future problematic disturbances.
Eclipses cause surprising behaviors in animals: for example, giraffes have been seen galloping or roosters and lobsters starting to crow.
In addition to light, temperatures and winds, to which animals are sensitive, can also decrease.
Andrew Farnsworth, a researcher at Cornell University’s Laboratory of Ornithology, studies the effect on birds. He uses weather radar to detect animals in flight.
During the previous eclipse in the United States, in August 2017, researchers observed “a drop in the number of flying animals,” he explains.
This eclipse had caused the cessation of daytime behavior (with the landing of insects or birds), but without causing nocturnal behavior such as the flight of bats or migratory birds, he explains. This year, in April, these birds could be forced to migrate even further.
These studies are “important for understanding the way animals perceive the world,” the expert emphasizes.
“Eclipses have a special power. They touch people, who feel a kind of reverence for the beauty of our Universe,” NASA chief Bill Nelson said this week.
It is this feeling of wonder that researchers studied in 2017, based on data from just under 3 million users of the social network Twitter.
The result: Those in the eclipse’s path were more likely to use the pronoun “we” (rather than “I”) and to care about others, according to Paul Piff, a psychology researcher at UC Irvine. An experience of wonder looks like “connecting us with each other,” he summarized.
This year he plans to study whether such an experiment could have an impact on political divisions.
Some 40 participatory science projects are also planned. “We encourage you to help NASA by watching what you see and hear around you,” called Bill Nelson.
Participating citizens will be able, for example, to record the sound of the environment around them or the temperature and cloud cover using a telephone application.
