Multispectral Airglow Observations of Gravity Waves during the August 2017 Total Solar Eclipse

University Of Massachusetts Lowell, Lowell MA

Investigators

Abstract

During a solar eclipse, when the Moon passes between the Earth and the Sun, the shadow results in cooling of the Earth's atmosphere along the swath that experiences a total eclipse. It has long been hypothesized that internal gravity waves (GWs) would be generated in response to sudden horizontal temperature gradients, that would then propagate away from the region of the shadow. The PI, who is an early career female, will deploy two imaging spectrographs at separate locations along the line of totality that will observe airglow before, during, and after the North American total solar eclipse on August 21, 2017. A third imager will be located far away from the eclipsed area, to provide a control dataset. The science objective is to study eclipse-driven gravity wave evolution in the airglow. This experiment is expected to provide information about how the atmosphere reacts to fast changes in ozone heating and ionizing photon flux. The work will also contribute to the debate about where gravity waves form and propagate during a solar eclipse.