What this solar eclipse can teach us about our planet and beyond

On April 8, the moon will photobomb our view of the sun, creating a rare total solar eclipse that will be seen in Mexico, across the eastern half of the United States and as far north as Newfoundland, Canada. Theto document it, but scientists have also set up projects to study its effects. Some of the projects enlist the help of eclipse viewers, including you.

“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. It’s going over hugely populated areas of the U.S., and everyone should make an attempt to see it,” said Liz MacDonald, citizen science lead for NASA’s heliophysics department. Although the last total solar eclipse seen in the United States occurred in 2017, there won’t be another one until 2044.As a viewer, you may notice a change in the sounds around you. Birds might stop chirping and crickets might start. Nocturnal owls and bats could begin to stir.

Student teams from various institutions will send balloons from the ground to the stratosphere, where the ozone layer lies, to capture data. The teams aim, for example, at which altitude the temperature drop is largest, as well as the lag between the drop in sunlight and a drop in surface temperature. They will also be testing how far video streaming can be reliably transmitted, by live-streaming a balloon’s ascent during the eclipse.

“For people who are not directly underneath the line of totality, they can actually listen to the eclipse on their radios,” said Ruth Bamford, a research scientist at Britain’s Rutherford Appleton Laboratory. For instance, you might be able to hear a radio station before the eclipse but then have it disappear during the eclipse. Or a radio station could fade in and out during the eclipse.

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