Start Date
28-10-2017 9:45 AM
End Date
28-10-2017 10:00 AM
Abstract
This research project was part of a nationwide effort organized by Montana Space Grant consortium to study and film the 2017 total solar eclipse with high altitude balloons. Our mission is to measure the changes in light from the total solar eclipse and its effects on the local weather conditions in the air and on the ground. Our results showed that the effects of totality on the ambient light levels were not gradual, like we had expected from our observations of sunsets, but rather the light levels decreased sharply at totality. We measured a 5.61% decrease in light before full totality, followed by a 94.4% decrease, over 90 seconds, into totality. The dramatic decreases in light levels are the root cause for the measured weather phenomena, including a short-term pressure increase associated with totality.
Dynamic weather effects induced from the 2017 total solar eclipse
This research project was part of a nationwide effort organized by Montana Space Grant consortium to study and film the 2017 total solar eclipse with high altitude balloons. Our mission is to measure the changes in light from the total solar eclipse and its effects on the local weather conditions in the air and on the ground. Our results showed that the effects of totality on the ambient light levels were not gradual, like we had expected from our observations of sunsets, but rather the light levels decreased sharply at totality. We measured a 5.61% decrease in light before full totality, followed by a 94.4% decrease, over 90 seconds, into totality. The dramatic decreases in light levels are the root cause for the measured weather phenomena, including a short-term pressure increase associated with totality.