Reference Document. Measuring Local Atmospheric Changes During the Solar Eclipse (2012 Total Solar Eclipse)
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EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITY - Reference Document. Measuring local atmospheric changes during the solar eclipse (2012 Total Solar Eclipse). Authors: ○ Mr. Miguel Ángel Pío Jiménez. Astronomer of the Institute of Astrophysics of Canary Islands. ○ Dr. Miquel Serra-Ricart. Astronomer of the Institute of Astrophysics of Canary Islands. ○ Sr. Juan Carlos Casado. Astrophotographer of tierrayestrellas.com, Barcelona. ○ Dr. Lorraine Hanlon. Astronomer University College Dublin, Irland. ○ Dr. Luciano Nicastro. Astronomer Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica, IASF Bologna. ○ Dr. Davide Ricci. Astronomer Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica, IASF Bologna. Collaborators: ○ Dr. Eliana Palazzi. Astronomer Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica, IASF Bologna. ○ Ms. Emer O Boyle. University College Dublin, Ireland. 1. Activity goals In this activity we will observe atmospheric changes, specifically changes in temperature due to the decrease in solar radiation caused by the blocking of the Solar disk by the Moon during a total solar eclipse. For this, a weather station located in Australia will be used. The objectives are: ○ To understand the basic phenomenology of eclipses ○ To apply mathematics (algebra) and basic physics (thermodynamics) to calculate temperature and radiation measurements from a weather station. ○ To develop an understanding and to apply basic statistical analysis techniques (error calculation). ○ To work cooperatively, as part of a team, valuing individual contributions. 2. Instrumentation A weather station that has sensors for measuring temperature and solar radiation intensity will be used for this activity. The students will have access to live data or a database of archived data at a later time. A web-tool will be available to allow students to do the activity. 1 3. Phenomenon 3.1 What is an Eclipse? An eclipse is the temporarily obscuration of a celestial body caused by the interposition of another body between this body and the source of illumination. In the following we will consider eclipses occurring in the Sun-Earth-Moon system where the term eclipse applies to two very different phenomena: 1. A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between the Sun and Earth, and the Moon fully or partially blocks the Sun. This can happen only at New Moon (Moon between the Sun and Earth) and if the Sun and the Moon are perfectly aligned as seen from Earth. In a total eclipse, the disk of the Sun is fully obscured by the Moon. In partial and annular eclipses only part of the Sun is obscured. 2. A lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes directly into the Earth’s shadow. This can occur only when the Sun, Earth, and Moon are aligned exactly, or very closely, with the Earth in the middle. Hence, a lunar eclipse can only occur the night of a Full Moon. 3.2 Historical significance of eclipses There are numerous historical references to this phenomenon in different times and cultures; there are documented eclipses in 709 B.C. in China or in 332 B.C. in Babylon. The oldest solar eclipse recorded happened in China on 22 October 2137 B.C., and apparently it costed the lives of the real astronomers Hsi and Ho, which failed to predict it well. The modern era of observing eclipses can be said to have begun in 1715, with the first prediction method as a map, made by Edmond Halley, of the land where they drew a path where the total eclipse would happen. The observing path just covered a few dozen kilometers from the predictions, and in the review was drawn the real path with the predictions for the eclipse in Europe in 1724. It was very important to predict the occurrences of solar eclipses because they represented the best conditions to study the higher layers of the solar atmosphere, especially that called “chromosphere” which was clearly visible only during eclipses. But it was mainly from the mid-nineteenth century, with the development of spectrographs, when observing the Sun and of course, phenomena like eclipses, went on to have considerable relevance. Although there was also another invention, nowadays very common and recognizable, which saw its first light in the early nineteenth century and whose improvement conducted primarily in the middle of that century, that was the photography. Thus, the possibility of taking photographs and spectra in expeditions, led to the realization of these for observation of solar eclipses mainly because, in those days there was still no theory about the sun and its composition or physical description, and Astrophysics of the time was focused primarily on astrometry. Still, during the total eclipse that occurred in 1868 and was observable from India, P. J. C. Janssen observed the spectrum of the solar chromosphere, and noticed a very bright emission line very close to the known wavelength of the sodium D doublet. As the line was very bright, he prophesied that this line should be even visible though it was not an eclipse, and was N. Lockyer (founder of the renowned 2 journal Nature) in England, who measured in detail the position of the line and found that it had nothing to do with the sodium D lines and was only observable in the spectrum of the Sun, so he said that this line was coming from the "helium" (name of the King Sun in greek, Helios). It was not until 1895 that the helium could be isolated on Earth. After the helium, there were also other discoveries, for example, very bright lines that initially called "coronium" because they was coming from the corona, but did not have, as helium at the time, no explanation and only could be could deciphered much later, in 1939 and thereafter, indicating that lines were due to energy transitions between different levels of iron or nickel, transitions that needed a lot of energy to be able to carry out, what we came to say one of the greatest enigmas of the Sun which is still unresolved, and was that the upper layers of the Sun are at much higher temperatures (of the order of millions of degrees) than the temperature of the layer visible with naked eye, called the photosphere which is about 5800 degrees kelvin. 3.3 Conditions for Eclipses occurring We know that the orbits of the Earth and the Moon are not coplanar, so most of the time the Moon is above or below the plane of the ecliptic (the plane defined by the Earth's orbit around the Sun). For an eclipse to occur, the Moon has to be in, or very close to, the plane of the ecliptic and in New Moon phase (solar eclipse) or Full Moon (lunar eclipse). Figure 1: The ecliptic plane and the Moon's orbit. The "critical zone" indicates a strip in which an eclipse may occur. (Diagram starryearth.com). The ‘Moon node line’ refers to the line joining the centre of the Earth to the point where the Moon’s orbit intersects the ecliptic plane. In solar eclipses at least the penumbra mole should reach Earth, producing a partial solar eclipse visible somewhere on our planet. For this, the moon must be at a point that is at most to 18° 31' from the node measured along the ecliptic or length. For the lunar umbra can be projected in the Earth the length should be a maximum of 11° 50'. 3 Figure 2: Diagram of umbra and penumbra zones in an eclipse. Also needed latitude conditions or perpendicular distance to the ecliptic. For partial solar eclipses should be a maximum of 1° 35’ and that the Moon's shadow reaches Earth the maximum value is 1° 03’. The extent of these limits vary with the distance from the Earth to the Moon, and to the Sun. To the Moon can be reached by the Earth’s shadow, is necessary that the length for the node does not exceed 12º 15’. If less than 9º 30’, there will be a total lunar eclipse. In latitude, maximum is 1° 25’ and total penumbral eclipses 24’. Therefore, in these circumstances proximity to node, a "window" opens for 37 ½ days that will eclipse conditions. These configurations occur two or three times a year -every 173.31 days- in the calls eclipses stations. The eclipse year is the time between two alignments of Sun, Moon and Earth and it is 346.62 days. During this time two eclipse seasons happen. The Moon’s orbital node lines don’t have a fixed orientation, but rotate by about 20° per year, going through one full turn in 18.6 years. This means that the dates on which the eclipses happen change each year. For example the eclipses of 2001 were in the months of January- February, June-July and December, the eclipses of 2003 were in May and November and those of 2006 in March and September. The movement of the orbital nodes means that the eclipses occur throughout the ecliptic. The movement of nodes causes that the eclipses occur throughout the ecliptic, serving all the zodiac constellations as stage. 3.4 Total eclipses per year The minimum is four (including lunar eclipses by the penumbra), two solar eclipses and two lunar eclipses. For example in 1999, 2003, 2005, etc. (Figure 3). 4 Figure 3: Solar and Moon eclipses between 1990 and 2012 (Diagram from I.M.C.C.E). This amount can be lowered to two on usual calendars, which often not indicate penumbral lunar eclipses. In this case, the two important eclipses solar eclipses would be total or annular, one at each eclipse station. 5 It often happens that, when in the same station of eclipses, it begins with a major solar eclipse, is followed by a weak lunar eclipse. The maximum number of eclipses in a calendar year may reach seven.