Post by Leon Grad on Apr 9, 2024 16:23:30 GMT
So yesterday was the day of the solar eclipse in North America. I personally witnessed just a partial eclipse due to my northern location, but it was neat nonetheless.
PISCES, the Federation's space agency, was not able to capture any pictures. The staff for the space agency is not particularly big for now, and it was at work when the eclipse occurred.
But, I'm excited to announce PISCES did something much cooler.
We archived the satellite pictures of the Moon's shadow, cast on the North American continent, as the eclipse occurred. Some of these pictures are only 10 minutes apart. We also archived the event in two different frequencies of the spectrum. So we have archives of the Moon's shadow as seen normally in visible light, but also in infrared.
These images are super useful for all sorts of things, as they contain surprisingly valuable information.
First of all, it's a cool opportunity for everyone to visualize just how large the Moon is. Its size can be directly compared to US states and Canadian provinces. The Moon's shadow is proportional to the Moon, and its shadow can be clearly seen in our visible-light archives.
Then, the data can be extremely useful for weather and climate models.
The Moon's shadow represents a large area with, suddenly, zero solar irradiation. This comes with a slight drop in air temperature, which is visible in our infrared archives of the event. The effects of this phenomenon can help fine-tune weather pattern predictions and models.
This is also useful for determining the local rate of heat loss, at least as seen from outer space, which gives us Pangaeans an independent observation of the Earth's actual greenhouse effect and its magnitude. The sudden presence of the Moon is as if we could suddenly "turn the Sun off", in mid-day, at the time when the surface has reached temperature maximum. Measuring how quickly heat then dissipates at that moment gives valuable insight into the atmosphere's behavior.
PISCES will be sharing the pictures in this thread in the next days, there are quite a few to upload.
Pictures of the Moon's Shadow on North America, in visible light:
Moon shadow on Earth, visible light, at 16:30 UTC:
Moon shadow on Earth, visible light, at 18:40 UTC:
Moon shadow on Earth, visible light, at 19:00 UTC:
Moon shadow on Earth, visible light, at 19:10 UTC:
Moon shadow on Earth, visible light, at 19:20 UTC:
Moon shadow on Earth, visible light, at 19:40 UTC:
Pictures of the Moon's Shadow on North America, in Infrared:
Moon shadow on Earth, infrared, at 16:30 UTC:
Moon shadow on Earth, infrared, at 18:40 UTC:
Moon shadow on Earth, infrared, at 19:00 UTC:
Moon shadow on Earth, infrared, at 19:10 UTC:
Moon shadow on Earth, infrared, at 19:20 UTC:
Moon shadow on Earth, infrared, at 19:40 UTC:
PISCES expresses its thanks to the NOAA for providing this valuable satellite imagery and making it freely accessible to the public.
Source for the visible light images: www.star.nesdis.noaa.gov/goes/sector_band.php?sat=G16§or=can&band=01&length=24&dim=1
Source for the IR images: www.star.nesdis.noaa.gov/goes/sector_band.php?sat=G16§or=can&band=11&length=24
PISCES, the Federation's space agency, was not able to capture any pictures. The staff for the space agency is not particularly big for now, and it was at work when the eclipse occurred.
But, I'm excited to announce PISCES did something much cooler.
We archived the satellite pictures of the Moon's shadow, cast on the North American continent, as the eclipse occurred. Some of these pictures are only 10 minutes apart. We also archived the event in two different frequencies of the spectrum. So we have archives of the Moon's shadow as seen normally in visible light, but also in infrared.
These images are super useful for all sorts of things, as they contain surprisingly valuable information.
First of all, it's a cool opportunity for everyone to visualize just how large the Moon is. Its size can be directly compared to US states and Canadian provinces. The Moon's shadow is proportional to the Moon, and its shadow can be clearly seen in our visible-light archives.
Then, the data can be extremely useful for weather and climate models.
The Moon's shadow represents a large area with, suddenly, zero solar irradiation. This comes with a slight drop in air temperature, which is visible in our infrared archives of the event. The effects of this phenomenon can help fine-tune weather pattern predictions and models.
This is also useful for determining the local rate of heat loss, at least as seen from outer space, which gives us Pangaeans an independent observation of the Earth's actual greenhouse effect and its magnitude. The sudden presence of the Moon is as if we could suddenly "turn the Sun off", in mid-day, at the time when the surface has reached temperature maximum. Measuring how quickly heat then dissipates at that moment gives valuable insight into the atmosphere's behavior.
PISCES will be sharing the pictures in this thread in the next days, there are quite a few to upload.
Pictures of the Moon's Shadow on North America, in visible light:
Moon shadow on Earth, visible light, at 16:30 UTC:
Moon shadow on Earth, visible light, at 18:40 UTC:
Moon shadow on Earth, visible light, at 19:00 UTC:
Moon shadow on Earth, visible light, at 19:10 UTC:
Moon shadow on Earth, visible light, at 19:20 UTC:
Moon shadow on Earth, visible light, at 19:40 UTC:
Pictures of the Moon's Shadow on North America, in Infrared:
Moon shadow on Earth, infrared, at 16:30 UTC:
Moon shadow on Earth, infrared, at 18:40 UTC:
Moon shadow on Earth, infrared, at 19:00 UTC:
Moon shadow on Earth, infrared, at 19:10 UTC:
Moon shadow on Earth, infrared, at 19:20 UTC:
Moon shadow on Earth, infrared, at 19:40 UTC:
PISCES expresses its thanks to the NOAA for providing this valuable satellite imagery and making it freely accessible to the public.
Source for the visible light images: www.star.nesdis.noaa.gov/goes/sector_band.php?sat=G16§or=can&band=01&length=24&dim=1
Source for the IR images: www.star.nesdis.noaa.gov/goes/sector_band.php?sat=G16§or=can&band=11&length=24
