Super Stellar Friday: Elevating Eclipses

February 2024
Solar Eclipses have puzzled humans for over ten thousand years, with most ancient cultures believing in angry gods. Nowadays we can use science to figure out what's going on and can even use meteorology to gain a better insight into exactly what the atmosphere is doing. The goal of the Nationwide Eclipse Ballooning Project is to create a high resolution data set using weather balloon data collected during solar eclipses in 2023 and 2024. Using data taken in 2023, we can analyze and predict what the April 8th eclipse will look like.
Jacob Garside is currently a second year student at Plymouth State University, pursuing a B.S. in Meteorology. He has been a part of the Nationwide Eclipse Ballooning Project since 2022. He was also a NASA Space Grant intern at the Discovery Center during the summer of 2023, and his campers are well prepared for the April 8th eclipse!