eclipse

Preparing for the eclipse

Position of Solar Orbiter on 8 April 2024, with Solar Orbiter’s turns around the Sun shown in green
Proba-3 set up in space

On 8 April 2024, a large part of the United States and Mexico will experience a total solar eclipse. Also at the STCE in Belgium, all eyes will be on the Sun. Three satellite instrument teams are preparing for unique, yet complementary, eclipse observations.

Antarctic Eclipse Observations

While the penguins were gazing at the total eclipse on December 4, the instruments onboard the PROBA2 satellite worked overtime to image and measure not one, but four passages of the moon in front of the sun. One of these occultations was nearly total for the SWAP EUV imager: as much as 96% of the solar disk was covered by the moon during the second passage

Antarctic Solar Eclipse

Let’s hope the penguins have their eclipse glasses ready. They will form most of the crowd in the Antarctic that will be able to witness a total solar eclipse on December 4. As always, the LYRA and SWAP instruments on PROBA2 are ready to observe this spectacle from their sun-synchronous orbit around Earth.

 

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