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Journalism of Courage
The extremely rare “hybrid” solar eclipse happening tomorrow (April 20) will be a spectacle in the sky for everyone to see. But what if the view of the eclipse was marred by a heavy cloud cover? A group of scientists plan to use a kite if that happens.
While clouds covering an eclipse could be an annoyance for any skywatcher, it would be especially problematic for scientists who may have travelled thousands of kilometres to study an eclipse, only to be thwarted by clouds.
According to NASA, that has happened to University of Hawaii astronomer Shadia Habbal several times.
During a recent expedition, Habbal travelled all the way to Antarctica to study the inner part of the Sun’s atmosphere or the Corona. There, she was met by clouds once again. “It was a completely greyed-out sky,” said Habbal in a press statement.
Habbal plans to view Thursday’s “Ningaloo” hybrid eclipse from the western tip of Australia tomorrow. But this time, she has a plan in case any clouds interfere with her scientific investigation. Her plan is as simple as it is ingenious.
Tomorrow, Habbal and her team will use a large kite to carry a scientific instrument about a kilometre into the air. The experiment is funded by NASA and the instrument is a spectrometer called ALIMAS (Advanced Low Intensity Multiplexed Astronomical Spectrometer).
The kite that Habbal plans to use is box-shaped and has wings. Its wingspan is about 6.5 metres across. When it reaches its maximum height in the sky, it will look just about as big as a passenger plane flying overhead. This will mean that it will not block the eclipse for anyone on the ground.
The kite and spectrometer will be tied to a tow bar on a vehicle using a kilometre-long tether. In case that tether breaks, a parachute attached to the spectrometer is designed to safely get the instrument back to the ground, according to NASA.
Habbal plans to use the spectrometer to better understand how charged particles escape the Sun through the corona to form solar wind. Most of this action happens close to the Sun in the inner part of the corona, which can usually only be viewed briefly during total solar eclipses.
Solar observatories sometimes mimic total eclipses by using “coronagraphs” or artificial discs that cover up the innermost part of the corona.
NASA says that the research team will fly the experiment on the kite as a technology demonstration even if there are no clouds during the eclipse. Habbal hopes that this kite can be used again during a solar eclipse that will be visible in the United States on April 8, 2024. But at that time, it could go as high as four kilometres for a longer period of time.
