Hi, my name is Dr. Kelly Korreck
and I am the Program Manager for the Solar Eclipse at NASA.
I am so excited to be here today with you all to talk
about the April 8th, 2024 total solar eclipse.
So on the screen, you can see the image of the path of totality.
So this eclipse is a solar eclipse
where the Sun is momentarily blocked by the Moon,
and along this path is where you will actually see that.
And not just see that action,
but then once the Moon is completely covering the Sun
you will see the Sun's outer corona, or atmosphere,
and that's where our origins of space weather come from.
So this is a really interesting and beautiful thing to behold.
So in this path, there are 31.5 million people who live who live in that
path and around 200 million who live
within a few hours drive of that path.
And the entire continental United States,
as well as parts of Alaska and Hawaii, will be seeing a partial eclipse.
So that's about 300 - over 300 million
people will experience a part of this celestial event.
So it's a really neat opportunity
to participate in NASA science
and be able to view this safely, because we do want to make sure to view
this safely and also talk a little bit more about the safety messaging.
Next slide.
And this is an
image of what you might see in the path of totality.
And so, again,
the Moon is completely blocking the Sun and you're seeing that outer atmosphere.
You might see some striations or some rays that go out from the Sun.
That's the solar wind that is streaming away from the Sun’s -
things that we study to better understand our star as well as then
that space weather that affects
our can affect our daily lives that Jamie will talk more about.
So with that, we'll move to Alex and see.
Good morning.
I'm Dr. Alex Lockwood.
I am the Eclipse Engagement Lead on behalf of NASA.
And yes, we have some really important messages
that we need to convey to the public for this event.
As Kelly mentioned, a huge population of the U.S.
will actually just be able to walk outside and witness this.
But in order to really appreciate the full event,
we have provided over 2 million solar viewing glasses
across the country to members of the public.
So these solar viewing glasses are ISO certified.
And the number here is on the screen for what that certification
is to make it safe to look directly at the Sun with these viewers.
Now, during the totality itself, which can last up to 4 minutes
in different parts of the U.S.,
you don't need the glasses.
You can actually look at the Sun for the only time during the daytime,
and you will see that beautiful corona image that Kelly just shared.
However, before and after, as the Moon is eclipsing the Sun
in order to witness this event and to see these spectacular Baily's
Beads that happen just as you see the craters of the Moon,
right, as the Moon is fully covering the Sun,
in order to appreciate all of that phenomenon you need these glasses.
So we do want to warn that there have been some fakes that are out in the market
that we witnessed previously and are currently witnessing
on, you know, major online sellers.
So one of the best ways we've been asked is how do you test these glasses?
Well, if you hold up your cell phone camera on the back, there's a flashlight.
And if you use these to look at the cell phone camera,
you should only see a tiny point of light and absolutely nothing else.
So that's a pretty good way to test these.
You want to be very careful and only look at the Sun
with ISO certified safety glasses.
If you do not have these viewing glasses, there's still plenty of ways
to witness the partial or total solar eclipse.
And that is
using indirect viewing methods such as a pinhole projector.
So there's plenty of resources on our website science dot nasa dot gov
slash eclipses on how to make your own pinhole
projector at home. Very easy activity that you can create -
it's an activity for kids as well.
But your most basic instrument
that you probably have ever cooked pasta at home is a colander.
You can take a colander from your kitchen, walk outside,
and the projection through the colander holes onto the ground
or whatever surface you have, will be that of the Sun.
And you'll be able to witness a partial or total solar eclipse this way.
So very easy at home activities
to view the eclipse safely.
Additionally, we have lots of other at home activities
that you can do for learners of all ages online.
Again, this QR code will point you straight to our website
with all of those activities, including an activity
with UV beads, which are very easy to purchase online,
you know, and inexpensive and respond to the UV light from from the Sun.
So that's a fun activity for kids.
We also have activities where you can draw what you think you'll see
when that beautiful corona happens during totality and several others.
So we encourage you to go online.
There's lots of very easy at home activities for folks to do
before,
during and after the eclipse and for the eclipse itself.
NASA has lots of events going on across the path of totality, which -
so we have events all the way from Texas, all the way up to Maine.
We are sending lots of NASA personnel to give talks, to serve, to give out
safety messaging and to give out some of these glasses and other resources
to make sure everyone has a safe but
also enjoyable experience. Because this is really a,
this is really an opportunity to to be with your community
and to witness an incredible phenomenon together.
This is the last one in the U.S.
for over 20 years, and it is happening in just a few short months away.
So and finally, additionally, in addition
to several major in-person events along the path of totality,
NASA will also be doing a live broadcast from 1 to 4 p.m. Eastern
on the day of the eclipse, where we will be showing views from
Mexico, the U.S.
of the telescope views of the
the totality as it passes over the U.S.
and talking about the science that NASA does around the eclipses,
how to view an eclipse safely, and how to continue to connect
with NASA and NASA science
well after this event has passed.
So to talk more about NASA science and space weather in particular, Jamie.
Thank you, Alex.
So good morning, everyone.
My name is Jamie Favors.
I'm the director of NASA's Space Weather Program in the Heliophysics division
and rolling that beautiful solar footage in the background as we chat.
A little bit on the space weather side of the eclipse,
I think that's kind of the really exciting part of,
you know, this eclipse as any eclipse is pretty exciting on its own.
The fact we're actually going to be very close
to solar maximum for this solar eclipse adds a pretty interesting dynamic here.
So we partner with NOAA with the Space Weather Prediction Center,
very similar to terrestrial weather.
Space Weather Prediction Center is the official source of the forecast
when it comes to space
weather alerts and warnings there.
Most recent forecast for solar maximum is to occur actually
this year, 2024, sometime between now, January and October.
So this is very likely right at the peak of solar
maximum for this cycle that this eclipse will be happening.
And as you kind of heard Kelly talking about,
you know, we're always observing the Sun, actually, as we look at the eclipse
glasses, it's
not so dissimilar to the way
we think about some of our really sophisticated instruments in space
and here on Earth about using filters to be able to observe the Sun
in different ways to protect those sensitive instruments
but be able to really peer in and understand the way the Sun works
to better answer those questions about space weather.
So if we're lucky, we may actually be having space weather events occurring,
solar flares or CME’s right around the time of that eclipse.
And they're causing that corona, as Kelly was talking about, to
not just be pretty static looking just with, know, normal solar wind,
but we may actually see the fingerprints of a recent solar eruption
actually in that corona, actually see very dynamic structures in that outer -
the corona features out there for the atmosphere of the Sun
as it really first starts to move into interplanetary space.
So that's the part I'm really excited about to kind of wait.
So we start leading up closer and closer to that day to kind of see is the Sun
going to give us something exciting to see from space weather perspective,
but just for a curiosity sake to be able to see those features out there.
So I think that kind of tells the story in the space weather side.
I think it's personally here too.
I'm a meteorologist and hemispheric scientist by background,
have a lot of friends who went into the broadcast
meteorology field and I'm really excited for that day
where we also talk about space weather
as we talk about weather on the local forecast
at night and talking about those impacts as we think about them here on Earth.
There's a lot of ways where the Sun actually touches
and influences our lives in ways we don't often
think about, whether it's, you know, the signals we have from GPS signals
coming through the atmosphere, the way we use radio propagation, impacts
on satellites and spacecraft in space just everyday life, the way, you know,
even animals migrate depend on things that can be impacted by space weather.
So it's I think we realize maybe less than is actual true about how often
the Sun and those features that are you know 94 million miles
away from us actually come in and touch our lives every single day.
All right, Thanks very much.
We will now open it up for Q&A.
So for people in the room, if you can just head to the mic
and please state your name and your affiliation.
And if you're directing your question to a specific person.
And then just a reminder for everyone that we are recording
and we'll post this online later.
All right. Go ahead.
Hi Todd Glickman, WCBS Radio, New York City.
Will NASA or NOAA be making cloud cover forecasts within a few
days of the event to help steer the public to the right places along the path?
So those forecasts do come out regularly.
I mean, the sources will be out there.
I don't know if we're doing anything special to connect them
to anything on the necessary, but NOAA is responsible for it.
NOAA is responsible for the weather.
Yeah, but I suspect it'd be the same products that are always available.
But know, hopefully they'll do a path specific
public information statement within a couple of days.
That's a good idea.
That's great. Yes.
And thanks for the talk.
I'm Ben Cathey from WVLT in Knoxville and we're in the east side of the States s
we’ll only be in a partial eclipse, but there's a tiny, tiny, tiny sliver
of northwest Tennessee in the path of totality.
What is the difference going to be
in your time under totality from kind of like
the centroid of the path versus the edge of totality?
There is a difference.
So the center of the path is where you're going to get the maximum
length on towards the edge is when it's going to be more like seconds.
So the center is going to be for four and a half minutes,
the sides are going to be 20 to 30 seconds.
So if you can go a little further in, it is into the centerline.
That's where you're going to get maximum totality.
But even for a brief second, the experience is well worth it.
All right.
While we wait and see if there are any other questions in the room,
one that I have is I would love for someone to tell us
a little bit more about some of the NASA science experiments
that are going on during the eclipse.
Great question.
We we are using the eclipse in many different ways.
First of all, to look at our our Star the Sun.
So we have one WB 57 airplane with two experiments onboard
that will look at the solar corona,
as well as study that outflow, as well as look
for some of the dust that's around our star. And you might think
dust is boring but it's not. It's actually the remnants of how the star was made.
And so that's
why it's interesting to understand the process of how the planetary formation
in the stellar formation, so little information about dust as well.
Then we will be using ground based assets.
So things like radio, radio arrays
to look at this, at the star our Sun
and take those really active regions that we see at the solar maximum,
and as the moon perfectly covers them and goes across the disk,
they'll take different signals to actually be able to see in height
what is going on.
A neat technique there.
And then we will be using this eclipse to test our atmosphere.
So our atmosphere has this charged layer
that we use, the bounced communication signals to.
And so we have folks, the HamSCI,
who are using ham radios to do this test.
We are also doing other tests through actually
a series of three rockets launched from Wallops
and there will be one before, during
and after the eclipse to study again that ionosphere and that collapse,
when that happens, when we have that sudden day night switch.
And so those are some of them.
There's also citizen science projects.
Does anyone want to take citizen science? I can keep going.
These are very, very exciting.
So we also have citizen science projects
from the Globe Observer app where folks can download
an app and help take observations of the temperature
and what they're seeing during an eclipse and what they're experiencing.
There's Eclipse Soundscapes, which is listening to the eclipse.
And this is the sounds that happen because animals do think it's nighttime.
So there are different,
different things that happen and that you hear during the day and then they
during the day to night transition during the eclipse and then back to day.
So that's being recorded and sonified
and I think that that's anybody,
any of the other ones that I'm forgetting right now?
Yeah HamSCI and yeah the eclipse. Yep.
So Soundscape and and Globe Observer. There we go.
Thank you.
All right.
Oh, all right.
I had a few more questions if I can just,
I can just run them off.
For the glasses from the last eclipse,
I've been told there's, like, an expiration.
What's the danger
in using an older pair of eclipse glasses from a few years ago?
And how widespread of an issue
are eye problems after?
Do you guys have any kind of data on that?
So in terms of the the glasses certification,
what I would do with your glasses is test them.
Even if you have a brand new pair.
I would test them internally as we were talking about with the cell phone,
that you should only see a pinpoint from that flashlight after you use them.
So if they are not damaged and you have tested them
indoors without looking at the Sun, that's telling.
That was telling us that they should be relatively safe to view the Sun.
In terms of the widespread damage, we've - we did a lot of - or widespread damage.
The fact that there wasn't any was because we get the safety message out
and folks are very good about actually understanding
that they need either a pair of glasses or an indirect viewing method.
There's actually a lot of fun ways -
you can even use your hair to do these pinhole projections.
You can use your fingers too. You put your back to the Sun
and put your fingers out to the side and pinhole project.
So they - I think there's a lot of interesting ways.
So we have not seen,
you know, many cases of solar retinopathy
and we'd have to - I'd have to go to the, you know, opticians to see how many cases.
But there is not widespread reports.
But I think being partners with the broadcast community and
sharing these messages is part of why we haven't seen some of those issues, too.
Right.
It's all of us sharing that good message out there about the cool parts
of the eclipse, but also staying safe. So.
All right. Thanks.
You know, last eclipse, I did a piece with the blind community
about how they experience the eclipse because it's such a collective
time for people, and they're kind of left out.
I know NASA had an app which was, you know, vibration based.
Are there any other new tools for underserved communities at this time?
Yeah, that's a great question.
So we do have some teams - who are, some of our student
teams have created as they take measurements
they've created a tactile version of recording those measurements.
And so we're working in Indiana.
There's a student team there who's working with the Indiana
Association for the Blind or I'm sorry, I'm getting the acronym messed up.
But but we're making connections there with actual science experiments.
We also have tactile books that talk about eclipses and the path of the eclipse
that we're passing out at all of our NASA locations.
And the Eclipse Soundscapes project is really one of those
unique opportunities where, you know, we are encouraging folks
to close their eyes for at least a few seconds, if not longer,
and witness how other communities
will experience this event, which, you know,
is actually pretty incredible.
You can, you feel the temperature change, you hear the sounds and,
you know, the atmosphere and the animals respond.
So we have put as much thought,
you know, we've put a lot of thought into how do we share this
with others, because it's a communal time
and that is for everyone.
You know, the sun touches everything and affects everyone's lives.
And that's what we are celebrating here, not just folks with,
you know, sight. So.
Yeah, just one more. Sorry.
I'm like the annoying guy on the sports radio show.
What do you think as far as hotels being booked up already or do
you think it'll be closer to the event when we get a better idea on the forecast?
From our current experience,
there are definitely locales where hotels are already sold out
and then there are some locales where you could find a hotel room or two.
So I would advise making your plans a little bit earlier than you might usually,
although we all know that eclipse chasers will probably make multiple
so that they can change based on the weather.
All right.
I know we've talked a little bit
about the weather and how that can affect the experience,
but I guess I would like to hear a little bit more about other factors
that people might want to consider as they're making plans.
For example, the the NASA events that are going on.
You know, what should people be taking into consideration?
Yeah, and,
you know, and in addition to the hotels, there are several major cities
along the path who have been planning for years to
to celebrate this incredible event and to accommodate the large crowds.
Those include Rochester, Niagara Falls,
Buffalo, all in New York, Erie, Pennsylvania.
Cleveland, Ohio.
Toledo, Ohio.
Indianapolis, Indiana.
And Dallas, Texas.
Definitely Dallas and Waco and Austin, all.
You know this.
That's just a few of the major cities that are along this path.
So in - so different cities are taking different preparation measures.
For example, the city of Austin is very much encouraging
folks to stay where they are and not gather centrally.
So for locals just to kind of,
you know, shelter in place, as it were,
understanding that there will be a large influx of other people.
But in terms of emergency management, you know, crowds,
traffic management, all of these cities are taking this very seriously.
You can find lots of information both on individual city websites,
but also at science dot nasa dot gov slash eclipses slash events.
So NASA has partnered with several of these cities
to not only bring up NASA's presence, but ensure that we are making
you know, we are insuring people's safety, both safety with glasses,
but also physical safety, you know, and mental
well-being to make sure that there are facilities for everyone.
So currently we have
12 cities that NASA is partnering with along the path of totality.
And but we will be sending
speakers to dozens more locations both on and off the path of totality,
because as was mentioned everywhere in the contiguous U.S.
will experience a partial eclipse, which is still a very rare
and cool phenomenon.
And I would also say
you can choose your own adventure here.
So if you really love parks in the outdoors,
you can see the eclipse at a national park or a local park.
If you are more of a city dweller, just make sure that you can see it over
the building that you that you've chosen to put yourself near.
But that might be exciting.
Or on a football field, you know, a stadium or something like that.
That might be a good choice.
So part of it is designing the whole experience
that you want to have, you know, choosing the city or state, or
you know, park along the path that you'd like to actually celebrate in.
Great.
And talking about how people can participate in the eclipse.
I know we talked about some of the citizen science projects
and, you know, I think that can seem a little bit intimidating to people.
But can you talk about some of the projects
that people can really just like go out in their backyard, pick up their phone
and do?
I'll talk about it.
So, for instance,
the Globe Observer app, again, is something that you can simply download.
And we are encouraging folks to maybe even prep ahead of time
because you can also record cloud cover or do other activities with this.
And so it's an app that's downloadable.
Folks can register and then you simply go outside in your backyard
and make observations and type it , or
you know, press buttons in your phone, record things with your phone.
So this is a relatively easy way to participate in science
and really get a feel for what we do in terms of data collection.
Great.
All right, Jamie, I know you talked a little bit about how we can
see the corona and some of those sources of space weather during the eclipse.
And can you talk a little bit more about the other ways that we look at space
weather, how we're gathering that data and what our scientists do with it?
Sure.
So there's you know, as a kid, I kind of always thought of our Star the Sun.
It's a pretty static feature,
just like one color, even though I wasn't looking at it.
I promise.
And I realize, you know, especially getting later in life in turn,
you're kind of understanding,
especially with more sophisticated, you know, instrumentation
that we can put in space and here on the Earth, like we can measure
in lots of different wavelengths,
looking at different temperature profiles, energy profiles in the star,
and they really kind of dive in a little bit deeper,
not just seeing one actual surface of the star, but actually dive in
and really understand multiple interaction that are going on there.
So if you saw some of that video earlier and saw the different colors
that we're showing, that's actually what we're looking at.
We're actually using different, different energy levels to look in different ways
at the Sun. On the NASA side, we get to answer
really interesting science questions about that.
That's really what drives so much of the work
we do, is that understanding of what is truly going on in our star,
because there's still so much of it that we don't understand.
The end goal for us really getting to the where we understand it
well enough to be able to predict it
and hopefully be able to predict it out in time quite a while.
And that's really where the partnership with organizations like NOAA,
where they're really responsible for that
forecasting, becomes pretty critical for us.
So that's an endpoint and then transition that science to understanding
and direct real world applications for them to take that next step.
On the forecasting side, there's so many similarities here with terrestrial
weather, weather here on the Earth about maybe where we were 30, 40 years ago
with being able to, you know, forecast out, you know, a hurricane event.
You know,
now we over five, seven days out and sometimes a very, very reliable forecast.
That's not where we were, you know, 30 or 40 years ago.
But that's similar, you know, where we are today for space.
But that's kind of where we were quite a few decades ago.
And it's - imagine for some of the most high energy events on the sun,
that's all reaching us here in about 8 minutes.
You know, imagine if your hurricane forecast gave you 8 minutes of warning on
what was going on.
I mean, that's
that's kind of what we're talking about, right, not only here for Earth,
but also as we send astronauts deeper into space.
We started with this one with our
aim is to actually have crew on board going back to the Moon.
And as we think about sending astronauts to Mars, this becomes ever increasing -
bigger challenges, not only being able to make these measurements, analyze
this data,
to be able to give that forecast so that people
can make decisions with the scientific mission
all the way into just what we do here in terrestrial weather, knowing, oh, hey,
do I want to take an umbrella with me today?
It's almost the same kind of thoughts
when we get to that understanding on space weather.
Thank you.
Any other questions in the room?
All right.
I'll do my last one.
I know we've talked about how people can view in person,
but if you're not close to the path of totality or have bad weather,
does someone want to talk a little bit about the NASA live broadcasts?
Absolutely.
So we're very excited to be able to live stream views from over a dozen places
along the path of totality, starting in Mazatlan, Texas -
Mazatlan, Mexico excuse me, going through Texas
up through 15 different states and coming out the other side of the U.S.
out of Houlton, Maine.
So we will be doing a live broadcast starting about an hour before
the first contact out in Mazatlan
and continuing for 3 hours so that we cover the entirety
as the eclipse passes over the U.S., We will have live
solar streams from different telescopes, including solar filters, and also
solar filters and different types of alpha filters.
And we'll be talking about people have watch parties
from different locations both on and off that path of totality
to really understand what people are experiencing, because
we want to bring this event to folks who are not able to witness it in person,
both the visuals but also the sentiments,
you know, because even if you're not experiencing it, the total solar eclipse,
you can experience a partial solar eclipse and you can take a moment
to appreciate, you know, what the Sun does for our everyday lives.
And so we're really leaning into that on our broadcast
because many folks don't know that NASA studies the Sun and they don't know
all of the important effects of space weather and the Sun on our everyday lives.
So bringing that awareness out and the importance of the work that NOAA
and NASA, you know, do and work, you know, the work we do together,
as long as all of the science that, you know,
we can understand about our everyday lives, both the Earth and,
you know, setting Earth and the Sun during this phenomenon. So
So had over 50 million views in 2017 of our live broadcast.
And we expect similar, if not greater numbers this time.
This eclipse is passing over about three times as many people in person.
So the opportunities for in-person engagement and for people to witness it
themselves is incredible, including a lot of communities
that may not be as in tune with science,
that we're as interested in what's going on around them.
But we hope that the live broadcast both brings the opportunity to others
and also is able to kind of last as a moment
in time for what NASA and the U.S.
is experiencing and celebrating.