An Even Greater American Eclipse

In 2017, I had a special opportunity to view the last total solar eclipse that passed over North America, dubbed the ‘Great American Eclipse’ for its sweeping cross-country path of totality from Oregon to South Carolina and unprecedented (at least for eclipses) social media virality. Now, another total solar eclipse will trace a path from Texas to Maine on Monday, with several million people expected to flock into the shadow of totality to catch a minutes-long glimpse of this rare celestial phenomenon. For weeks, I’ve seen article after article about the eclipse, how best to view it, how much economic benefit and traffic are expected; perhaps it’s just my algorithm, but I sense substantially more hype than last time. And I believe the hype is justified, since laying eyes on a solar eclipse is one of the few truly indescribable and soul-moving experiences I have had, however fleeting.

I’ve been asked several times where would be the best place to maximize one’s eclipse-viewing experience – in all honesty, getting a clear view of the sun at any given moment is largely up to chance. We can count on cloud cover predictions a few days in advance, which indicate that Texas will have a cloudy day but the rest of the path varies from sunny to partly cloudy. I will be spending the weekend in Lebanon, NH (all lodging was filled in the northern half of Vermont) and plan to drive to Waterbury, VT to view totality: by some strange luck, northern New England has the highest chances for a clear sky despite only ~30% of days being even partly sunny at this time of year. The region received about a foot of snow this week, which should help ensure a clear sky by suppressing surface-based absorption and convection (the most difficult clouds to predict)…I am keeping my fingers crossed that this will be enough to keep the clouds away from our view.

3-day cloud cover forecast (in % coverage, where white counterintuitively represents the clearest sky). Source: Pivotal Weather

While the rest of us gawk at the eclipse’s visual incredibleness, the brief minutes of totality present a unique opportunity for scientists to conduct meaningful research. In the past, solar eclipses have provided a window for the first observation of coronal mass ejections, the discovery of helium, and the first proof of light bending around a massive object like our sun. But several interesting studies came out of the last eclipse, presenting new questions that could be answered during this one. For example, NASA will be taking broad-spectrum imagery of coronal behavior, which should be especially interesting near the 11-year max of this solar cycle. Another study aims the instruments at the ionosphere, trying to measure its interaction with light in order to identify disruptions that could affect global communications. I will be particularly interested in the boundary layer observations that come from the eclipse path, since atmospheric soundings and remote sensing can reveal hidden airflows that can assist with turbulence and cloud formation models. As the next cross-country total eclipse is not until 2045, I hope we can make the most of this opportunity at all levels of observation!

East Coast Earthquake

At 10:23 EDT this morning, a 4.8-magnitude earthquake rattled the Northeast. The epicenter was located about 3 miles beneath Lebanon, NJ, about 40 miles outside of New York City. I actually felt the shockwaves 200 miles away in the Boston area, where all the furniture in the office of my upstairs apartment wobbled back and forth for a few seconds. Nothing fell off the shelves, no new cracks appeared in my historic house or neighborhood. I had lived through many of these low-magnitude, shallow earthquakes before, when Oklahoma had a slew of 4.9-and-under magnitude quakes due to unregulated fracking-related activities between 2010 and 2015. But I still find the sensation unnerving and was glad not to feel the 4.0-magnitude aftershock at 18:30 EDT tonight.

Fortunately, the most powerful earthquake to strike the eastern seaboard since 2011 left minimal damage. The region has no major fault lines, which keeps the magnitude of any quakes down, but the dense, hard, ancient rocks of the Appalachian uplift transmit the vibrations farther than in younger geologic areas. Earthquakes can be absolutely terrifying and tragic elsewhere, though, striking suddenly without warning and demolishing cities in mere seconds. Just this week, a much stronger 7.4-magnitude quake left 9 dead and 1000 injured in Taiwan, whose rigorous engineering standards and civic preparedness were successful in limiting structural and economic damage. However, many countries along fault lines are not so well-equipped, as we’ve seen the horrible destruction in Morocco, Türkiye, Haiti, Mexico, Indonesia, New Zealand, and more. As far as natural disasters go, I find earthquakes at least an order of magnitude more worrying than tornadoes or hurricanes, and I am quite grateful to live in the relative safety of New England.