| Presentation Title: | Chasing the 2024 eclipse: results from coordinated ground and airborne missions -- Citizen CATE 2024 and NASA’s WB-57s |
| Author(s): | Amir Caspi, Sarah A. Kovac, Daniel B. Seaton, Paul Bryans, Craig E. DeForest, Cooper Downs, Daniel W. Zietlow, Carey Scott, Matthew J. West, Padma A. Yanamandra-Fisher, Amelia Bettati, Fred Bruenjes, John Carini, Sarah Davis, Ed DeLuca, David F. Elmore, Charlie Gardner, Sanjay Gosain, Rebecca Haacker, Jason Jackiewicz, Viliam Klein, Shawn Laatsch, Julie Maldonado, Valentin Martínez Pillet, Jorge Perez-Gallego, Ritesh Patel, Kevin Reardon, Willow Reed, Patricia H. Reiff, Nikita Saini, Jenna Samra, Steven Tomczyk, Anna Tosolini, Andrei Ursache, Rachael L. Weir, John K. Williams, Jen Winter, and the Citizen CATE 2024 and NASA WB-57 2024 Eclipse Teams |
Abstract:
Total solar eclipses are spectacular astronomical phenomena that allow unique studies of the solar corona. While observing windows at fixed sites are only a few minutes long, "chasing” the Moon’s shadow enables longer observing periods, enhancing scientific return and mitigating the risk of bad observing conditions in any one location. Here, we discuss two successful expeditions to chase the 2024 eclipse: Citizen CATE 2024, a distributed ground network of uniform stationary sites deployed along the length of the eclipse path to observe in series, jointly funded by NSF and NASA; and a NASA-funded WB-57 campaign, with two airplanes flying along the shadow path to extend observing time from particular instruments.
CATE 2024 deployed 35+ near-identical stations along the eclipse path from Texas to Maine to observe the corona in polarized light out to ~3 solar radii, over more than an hour of totality. Each station was run by trained local community volunteers and observed with identical procedures, achieving high-dynamic-range (HDR) images of the corona every 2 seconds; images are calibrated, co-aligned, and stacked from all stations to produce observations of coronal dynamics (flows, waves, etc.). A pathfinding expedition to the 20 April 2023 Australian eclipse provided a beta-test of equipment and procedures. In addition to its science, CATE 2024 encompassed an enormous outreach opportunity.
NASA’s WB-57 aircraft offer observations from nose-mounted 2-axis gimbaled telescopes flying at 50 kft and 400 knots, for ~40% longer duration in totality per plane compared to a stationary ground site, and access to near-infrared (NIR: 0.8–1.2 µm), shortwave infrared (SWIR: 1.2–2 µm), and midwave infrared (MWIR: 2–5 µm) wavelengths. On one WB-57, we flew a new photometrically-calibrated multispectral imaging suite for high-speed, high-resolution images in multiple MWIR passbands to study emission from solar features – prominences, streamers, polar plumes, and active regions – opening new discovery space for this under-observed region of the coronal spectrum.
We discuss the CATE and WB-57 2024 missions, lessons learned and results from the pioneering experiments in 2017 and 2023, the first results these next-generation 2024 missions, and plans for the next eclipse in 2026.