NASA will study the ionosphere

NEW YORK (EFE).— The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) will conduct various scientific experiments to study the upper atmosphere during the total solar eclipse on Monday, June 8, which will be visible in parts of Mexico, the United States and Canada, one of its representatives announced yesterday.

NASA will launch three sounding rockets from Wallops Island in Virginia during the event to study how the Earth’s upper atmosphere is affected when sunlight briefly dims over a portion of the planet.

“They will do this by launching rockets 35 minutes before the eclipse, then during totality and then 35 minutes following the eclipse,” explains NASA astrophysicist Georgia de Nolfo.

“The goal,” he added, “is to really study how the upper atmosphere, which we call the ionosphere, is responding to the eclipse, to the reduced light coming from the Sun at that time.”

On the other hand, several NASA WB-57F aircraft will be in charge of “chasing” the phenomenon, which will begin in the South Pacific Ocean, then land in Mazatlán and from there continue its path over Mexico, the United States (from Texas to Maine) and Canada tracing a diagonal trajectory.

“(The planes) will fly along the path of totality (of the eclipse) and take pictures of the Sun. (In those images) we will be able to see the very tenuous atmosphere of the Sun that we call the corona, so we will be able to study that corona in a unique way during that period,” notes the NASA expert.

Exciting

For De Nolfo, who is also business line manager for heliophysics, the eclipse offers a “very exciting” opportunity to do science, both for heliophysics, or the study of the Sun and its influence on Earth and the solar system, and for science lovers in general.

For those watching the eclipse with their feet on the ground, totality will last four minutes and 28 seconds at most, although it will last longer in Torreón and will range between 3.5 and four minutes in other locations.

The total solar eclipse will darken the skies over North America, temperatures will drop and birds are expected to stop chirping.

“This is when the Moon comes between the Sun and the Earth and blocks the light coming from the Sun. It also casts a shadow on the Earth. If you are lucky enough to be in the path of totality, you will see the Moon blocking most of the light,” explains De Nolfo.