Watching partial eclipse, rockets launching
Locals and visitors to the Outer Banks of North Carolina can anticipate a spectacle of both earthly and scientific marvels next Monday. The region is set to enjoy near-perfect weather on the day of the partial eclipse, with temperatures in the upper 50s to low 60s and mostly clear skies forecasted. Aside from the naturally occurring phenomenon, observers may also be able to witness the launch of three sounding rockets from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on the Virginia Eastern Shore.
On Monday, the partial eclipse in the Outer Banks begins with the lunar disc touching the solar disc – a phase referred to as ‘first contact’ – at exactly 2:04:45 p.m. At the peak of the event, around 71% of the sun will be obscured by the moon at 3:20:35 p.m. The celestial display will conclude when the edge of the Moon leaves the edge of the Sun at 4:32:16 p.m. Special viewing events for this astronomical spectacle are slated to take place in the campuses of the College of the Albemarle in Manteo, Barco, Elizabeth City and Edenton.
Viewer safety is of utmost importance during such events. It is crucial to not look directly at the sun with regular sunglasses but to use only lenses certified with a rating of (ISO) 12312-2. Those interested in such events may mark their calendars as the next total solar eclipse visible from eastern North Carolina and the Outer Banks is projected for May 11, 2078.
In the realm of scientific exploration, three Atmospheric Perturbations around Eclipse Path (APEP) sounding rockets will take flight from the Wallops Island. These rockets aim to study the influence of a solar eclipse on the disturbances in the ionosphere, a layer of the Earth’s atmosphere. The rockets were previously launched and successfully recovered during an annular solar eclipse in October 2023. Upgraded with fresh instrumentation, these rockets gear up for their mission next Monday.
Led by Professor Aroh Barjatya of the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Florida, the rockets will take off at three different intervals. One will launch 45 minutes before the peak local eclipse, one during, and another 45 minutes after. Each interval is critical to collecting data on the influence of the sun’s sudden vanishing on the ionosphere. This, in turn, generates disturbances that can interfere with global communications. As such, understanding the constitution of the ionosphere and developing models to predict disturbances is of grave importance.
The APEP rockets are set to soar up to an altitude of roughly 260 miles or 420 kilometers. Each rocket is designed to gauge the density of charged and neutral particles, as well as the surrounding magnetic and electric fields. In essence, each launch will deliver the results of what could be obtained from launching fifteen rockets, making it an effective and efficient mission.
The collective effort in this mission does not restrict itself to the rocket launches. Teams of researchers across the U.S. are preparing to measure the ionosphere through various techniques. A team of students from Embry-Riddle will orchestrate a series of high-altitude balloons, while investigators from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Haystack Observatory, and the Air Force Research Laboratory in New Mexico, will operate a variety of ground-based radars to gather measurements.
The upcoming eclipse and rocket launches represent rare opportunities to further our understanding of the Earth’s atmosphere and its dynamics, crucial for our increasingly communication-dependent world. This mission, paired with the spectacle of the partial eclipse, offers locals, visitors and scientists an enriching experience under near-perfect weather conditions next Monday.