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Teams of students from across
the United States have a unique vantage

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point of total solar eclipses
thanks to scientific balloons.

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The Nationwide Eclipse Ballooning
Project is a NASA mission-like adventure,

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and collecting data from balloons
that go high up into the atmosphere.

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Started in 2014,
the project engages college students

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and high schoolers
in one of two distinct paths.

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One is the engineering track
that has mostly engineering students

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that get to tinker on different payloads,
and the other track

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is an atmospheric science track
where they'll actually be launching

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weather sensors to study
the impact of the eclipse.

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Atmospheric science teams
launch helium-filled weather balloons —

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the same as those used by
the National Weather Service — every hour

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for hours before and after an eclipse.

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Engineering teams fly larger balloons
laden with cameras and experiments

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they build themselves
100,000ft up into the stratosphere.

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From there,
they study a variety of things

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such as incoming
cosmic radiation and ozone levels,

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as well as offering dramatic views
of the Moon's shadow on our planet.

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The project is really a unique
one in that it's both an education,

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but also doing amazing science
that's both about the eclipse itself

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and also the atmospheric response
of the eclipse.

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Student balloon teams made a historic
first during the 2019 eclipse:

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they measured eclipse-driven

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atmospheric gravity waves
in Earth's stratosphere, or large

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ripples in the air caused by the temporary
cooling due to the drop in sunlight.

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What excites me the most about this
project is thinking about the experiences

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that the students have
that they'll remember forever.