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How Does a Solar Eclipse Affect Earth’s Atmosphere?

Presenting Authors: Eli Pugsley, Elizabeth Tanner

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Data collection

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  • Collection began at 9:14am the day before the eclipse
  • Collection ended at 3:00pm the following day
  • A balloon was launched every hour
  • Up to three balloons were connected to the ground stations at a time.

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Launch Conditions

  • Started out cold and mostly clear
  • Rained the entire night before the eclipse
  • Cloudy, but no rain during totality

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What data did we collect?

  • Usable data from every launch
    • Radiosonde data
    • weather station data
  • Created skew-T diagrams with data from every launch

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Lufft Weather Station Data

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Radiosonde Data Quality By Launch

GOOD

AVERAGE

POOR

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Data observations

  • The eclipse had less of an affect on the planetary boundary layer
    • Cause: clouds
  • Jumps in data
    • Cause: radiosonde connections

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Data Analysis

  • Used the Skew-T diagrams and planetary boundary layer height code to find the planetary boundary layer before and after the eclipse
  • Analyzed weather station data
  • Compared weather station data to balloon data

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Our next steps

  • Continue general analysis
  • Create plots for weather station data
  • Compare Skew-T data with weather models from the eclipse date
  • Prepare for the eclipse in April

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