During Eclipses, Astronomers Try to Reveal the Secrets of the Solar Wind

[Judi Lynn]

By Calla Cofield, Space.com Senior Writer | August 13, 2017 07:00am ET


Shadia Habbal has been on a bit of a losing streak.

In 2012, Habbal, an astronomer and professor at the University of Hawaii, traveled to northern Australia to witness a total solar eclipse, when the moon completely covers the face of the sun. During those few brief moments when the solar disk completely disappears behind its lunar companion, a portion of the Earth becomes cloaked in shadow, and jets of hot gas in the sun's typically invisible atmosphere are revealed to skywatchers. It's considered one of the most stunning natural phenomena that can be seen with the naked eye.

But in 2012, Habbal's view of that beautiful sight was blocked by clouds. The same thing happened in 2013, when she traveled to Kenya in hopes of witnessing another total solar eclipse. Habbal had a clear view of the eclipse in 2015 from Svalbard (a Norwegian archipelago north of the Arctic Circle), but her view was clouded out again for an eclipse in Indonesia in 2016.

. . .

No one enjoys it when the weather ruins their day, but when Habbal misses a total solar eclipse, she loses more than a great experience. As an astronomer at the University of Hawaii, she studies the solar wind — a stream of particles that flows off the surface of the sun as both a consistent, gentle breeze and through violent eruptions that spit clouds of material into space. During a total solar eclipse, scientists get the clearest view possible of the sun's lower atmosphere, called the corona, where the solar wind emerges from the sun's surface, Habbal said.

More:
https://www.space.com/37738-solar-eclipses-secrets-of-solar-wind.html?utm_source=notification

[Lionel Mandrake]

1. The terminology is garbled in this story.

1. The solar wind does not flow "both a consistent, gentle breeze and through violent eruptions." The violent eruptions are solar flares, prominences, and coronal mass ejections, which are not part of the solar wind.

2. The corona is not the sun's lower atmosphere. It's the upper atmosphere.