'You’re hit with a slam of shadow': Nasa’s air mission to capture rare eclipse data
Two aviators will take off from Iceland to photograph the sun while flying at high altitude along solar eclipse’s path
TL;DR
- Nasa aviators will fly a research plane from Iceland to photograph the sun during a solar eclipse.
- The aircraft will fly at 50,000 feet along the eclipse's path to extend totality to nearly 3 minutes.
- Four cameras in the plane's nose cone will capture images of the sun in different light wavelengths, including plasma loops (prominences) and magnetic explosions (nanoflares).
- The mission aims to help scientists understand the sun's corona temperature and space weather.
- High-altitude flight offers advantages over ground-based and space-based observations by avoiding clouds and atmospheric interference, and enabling larger data transfer.