Eclipses

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank Close
Keyword(s):  
Solar Eclipse ◽  
The United States ◽  
Total Solar Eclipse ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Natural Phenomenon ◽  
Optical Illusion ◽  
Common Response ◽  
Asking Questions ◽  
The Moment ◽  
Source Of Information

Have you ever seen a total solar eclipse? If the question caused you to search your memory, the correct answer would have been “no.” A common response is: “Yes--I saw one, it was about 90% partial eclipse where I lived.” A 90% partial eclipse is indeed a remarkable phenomenon, but true totality leaves all else in the shade, in all senses of the phrase. Ask the question of anyone who has experienced the full sensation of being obliterated by the moon's shadow, and they will reply “yes”--without hesitation--and continue with a monologue describing the overwhelming experiences and unique phenomena that ensued. On 21 August 2017 millions of people across the United States witnessed “The Great American Eclipse” of the Sun. The moment it was over, people around the world were asking questions: what caused the weird shadows and colors in the build up to totality? Were those ephemeral bands of shadows gliding across the ground in the seconds before totality real or an optical illusion? Why this, what that, but above all: where and when can I see a total solar eclipse again? Eclipses: What Everyone Needs to Know helps explain the profound differences between a 99.99% partial eclipse and true totality, and inform readers how to experience this most beautiful natural phenomenon successfully. It covers eclipses of sun, moon, and other astronomical objects, and their applications in science, as well as their role in history, literature, and myth. It describes the phenomena to expect at a solar eclipse and the best ways to record them--by camera, video, or by simple handmade experiments. The book covers the timetable of upcoming eclipses, where the best locations will be to see them, and the opportunities for using them as vehicles for inspiration and education. As a veteran of seven total solar eclipses, physicist Frank Close is an expert both on the theory and practice of eclipses. Eclipses: What Everyone Needs to Know is a popular source of information on the physics of eclipses.

Watershed or Phoenix From the Ashes? – Speculations on the Future of International Law After the September 11 Attacks

2001 ◽  
Vol 2 (16) ◽  
Author(s):  
Florian Hoffmann
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
The United States ◽  
September 11 ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
James Bond ◽  
Law Of Nations ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Future ◽  
September 11 Attacks ◽  
The Moment

In the first place, I should like to stress that the emphasis of my rather ambitious-sounding subtitle is on ‘speculation’, and not on ‘the future of international law’; for one, it is, at least at the time of writing, entirely speculative to think about the mid- and long-term consequences of the September 11 attacks, since, so far, the announced response to the attacks by the United States, the ‘West’ and the ‘civilised world’, has not yet happened. We are in a strange state of limbo, where everything seems possible, from secret James Bond-type operations to outright military attack of Afghanistan by the US and NATO troops, from civil war in Pakistan to biological —or even nuclear-counterattacks by the terrorist fold, from ‘business as (almost) usual’ to ‘the world is out of joint’. At such times, to speculate is not only all one can do, but it is, I believe, positively encouraged for those who professionally and/or passionately deal with the structure and meaning of social reality, as, inter alia, international legal academics do. Secondly, the emphasis is also on speculation because, evidently, it would be quite preposterous to pretend to set out, in a very brief comment written ‘out of the moment’, what all this will come to mean for so richly textured an academic discourse as international law. Yet international law and international lawyers are in everyone's mouth at this moment, and so it seems precisely apt to ‘speculate’ —and no more—, in rough sketch, about the consequences the events of September 11 and their political-military aftermath could have on the theory and practice of the ‘law of nations’.

scholarly journals Measuring ARTSE2017: Results from Wyoming and New York

2019 ◽  
Vol 100 (6) ◽  
pp. 1049-1060 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Fowler ◽  
Junhong Wang ◽  
Deborah Ross ◽  
Thomas Colligan ◽  
Jaxen Godfrey
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Solar Eclipse ◽  
New York State ◽  
The United States ◽  
Total Solar Eclipse ◽  
Lapse Rate ◽  
Radiosonde Data ◽  
York State ◽  
K 12 ◽  
Fort Laramie

AbstractThe 21 August 2017 total solar eclipse was the first total eclipse on the mainland of the United States since 1979. The Atmospheric Responses of 2017 Total Solar Eclipse (ARTSE2017) project was created to observe the response of the atmosphere to the shadow of the moon. During the eclipse, 10 sites launched radiosondes in a very rapid, serial weather balloon deployment along the totality path, and high-resolution mesoscale meteorological network (mesonet) data were collected in three states. Here, we focus on the results obtained from the radiosonde field campaign in Fort Laramie, Wyoming, and the New York State Mesonet (NYSM). In Fort Laramie, 36 people from 13 institutions flew 19 radiosondes and launched 5 large balloons carrying video payloads before, during, and after the eclipse while continuously recording surface weather data. Preliminary analysis of the radiosonde data provided inconclusive evidence of eclipse-driven gravity waves but showed that the short duration of darkness during totality was enough to alter boundary layer (BL) height, the lowest layer of the atmosphere, substantially. The statewide impact of the partial eclipse in New York State (NYS) was observed for solar radiation, surface temperature, surface wind, and surface-layer lapse rate using NYSM data. Importantly, the radiosonde and mesonet data collected during the eclipse will be available for public access. ARTSE2017 also focused on education, including students from all demographics (undergraduate and K–12) and the general public. Finally, we summarize goals accomplished from leveraging resources for education, research, and workforce development on undergraduate students from a variety of fields.

scholarly journals The Astronomical Event of the Decade: Library Opportunities with the Coming Total Eclipse of the Sun

2017 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 33
Author(s):  
Andrew Fraknoi ◽  
Dennis Schatz
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Solar Eclipse ◽  
The United States ◽  
Total Solar Eclipse ◽  
The Sun ◽  
The Moon ◽  
Total Eclipse

On August 21, 2017, we will be treated to the first total eclipse of the sun visible in the continental United States in almost forty years. Because the total eclipse can only be seen in the United States, it is being called the “All American Total Solar Eclipse.” In this kind of eclipse, the Moon gets in front of the sun in the sky and blocks its light.

scholarly journals Eclipse across America: Citizen Science Observations of the 21 August 2017 Total Solar Eclipse

2019 ◽  
Vol 58 (11) ◽  
pp. 2363-2385 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Brant Dodson ◽  
Marilé Colón Robles ◽  
Jessica E. Taylor ◽  
Cayley C. DeFontes ◽  
Kristen L. Weaver
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Citizen Science ◽  
Solar Eclipse ◽  
The United States ◽  
Total Solar Eclipse ◽  
Global Learning ◽  
Science Data ◽  
Unique Character ◽  
Temperature Depression ◽  
Meteorological Effects

AbstractOn 21 August 2017, North America witnessed a total solar eclipse, with the path of totality passing across the United States from coast to coast. The major public interest in the event inspired the Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) Observer to organize a citizen science observing campaign to record the meteorological effects of the eclipse. Participants at 17 585 observing sites collected 68 620 temperature observations and 15 978 cloud observations. With 7194 sites positioned in the path of totality, participants provide a nearly unbroken record of the cloud and temperature effects of the eclipse across the contiguous United States. The collection of both temperature and cloud observations provides an opportunity to quantify the cloud–temperature relationship. The unique character of citizen science, which provides data from a large number of observations with limited quality control, requires a method that leverages the large number of observations. By grouping observing sites along the path of totality by 1° longitude bins, the errors from individual sites are averaged out and the meteorological effects of the eclipse can be determined robustly. The data reveal a distinct relationship between prevailing cloud cover and the eclipse-induced temperature depression, in which overcast conditions reduces the temperature depression by about one-half of the value from clear conditions. A comparison of the GLOBE results with mesonet data allows a test of the robustness of the citizen science results. The results also show the great benefit that research using citizen science data receives from increased numbers of participants and observations.

scholarly journals The 2017 August 21 American total solar eclipse through the eyes of GPS

2018 ◽  
Vol 214 (1) ◽  
pp. 651-655 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bhaskar Kundu ◽  
Dibyashakti Panda ◽  
Vineet K Gahalaut ◽  
J K Catherine
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
South Carolina ◽  
Solar Eclipse ◽  
United States Of America ◽  
The United States ◽  
Total Solar Eclipse ◽  
Global Navigation Satellite Systems ◽  
Naval Research ◽  
Significant Drop ◽  
Total Electron

SUMMARY We explored spatio-temporal variation in total electron contents (TEC) in the ionosphere caused by the recent 2017 August 21 total solar eclipse, which was observed over the United States of America. The path of the total solar eclipse passes through the continental parts of the United States of America, starting in the northwestern state of Oregon and ending in the southeastern state of South Carolina, approximately covering 4000 km length. Across this length, EarthScope Plate Boundary Observatory (PBO) has been operating a dense Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) networks. During the course of passage of the solar eclipse, the sudden decline in solar radiation by temporarily obscuration by the Moon caused a drop of ∼6–9 × 1016 electrons m2 in the ionosphere with time-delay at the cGPS sites. The significant drop in TEC at cGPS sites captured the average migration velocity of shadow along the eclipse path (0.74 km s−1), from which we estimated the Moon's orbital velocity (∼1 km s−1). Further, this event also caused some marginal increase in TEC during the eclipse in the Earth's ionosphere in the magnetically conjugate region at the tip of South America and Antarctica, consistent with the model predictions of SAMI3 by Naval Research Laboratory.

Introduction. What the postcolonial means to us: European literature(s) and postcolonialism

2005 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-78
Author(s):  
THEO D'HAEN
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Cultural Production ◽  
The United States ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Literary Studies ◽  
Colonial Literature ◽  
Historical Process ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
The Moment ◽  
European Review

‘Postcolonialism’ and ‘postcolonial’ are fashionable terms in literary studies these days. Henk Wesseling, in his ‘Editorial’ in the European Review (12(3): 267–271, 2004), with regard to another fashionable term, ‘empire,’ warned that the same word may mean different things to different people. So too it is with ‘postcolonial’ and ‘postcolonialism’.To begin with, there is the matter of orthography. I have used unhyphenated ‘postcolonial’ and ‘postcolonialism.’ In fact, the hyphenated forms are the older and more conventional. Ashcroft, Griffiths and Tiffin use them in their 1989 The Empire Writes Back: Theory and Practice in Post-Colonial Literatures, still a landmark publication in the field, as does John Thieme in his 1996 Arnold Anthology of Post-Colonial Literatures in English. Both restrict the use of ‘post-colonial’ to ‘writing by those peoples formerly colonized by Britain’ (Ref. 1, p. 1) and ‘the anglophone literatures of countries other than Britain and the United States’ (Ref. 2, p. 1). Both spurn chronology, reaching back to the 19th and early 20th centuries for examples of ‘post-colonial’ literature. Ashcroft et al. and Thieme thoroughly differ, though, as to the term's precise charge. Ashcroft et al. see ‘post-colonialism’ as covering ‘all the culture affected by the imperial process from the moment of colonization to the present day,’ and this because they find there to be ‘a continuity of preoccupations throughout the historical process initiated by European imperial aggression’ (Ref. 1, p. 2). Thieme finds this use of the term problematic, because of its association with ‘writing and other forms of cultural production which display an oppositional attitude towards colonialism, which are to a greater or lesser degree anti-colonial in orientation’ (Ref. 2, p. 1-2).

scholarly journals Data Sharing Among Three States in the BioSense Platform during the 2017 US Solar Eclipse

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Stacey Hoferka ◽  
Caleb Wiedeman ◽  
Kristen Heitzinger ◽  
Mike Schardein
Keyword(s):  
Data Sharing ◽  
Solar Eclipse ◽  
Syndromic Surveillance ◽  
Data Access ◽  
The United States ◽  
Aggregate Data ◽  
Total Solar Eclipse ◽  
Mass Gathering ◽  
Monitoring Period ◽  
Ed Visits

ObjectiveDescribe cross-jurisdictional data sharing practices using ESSENCE and facilitated by the BioSense Platform for a national mass gathering event, and the dashboard views created to enhance local data for greater situational awareness.IntroductionIn 2016, the BioSense Platform for national syndromic surveillance made substantial enhancements including data processing changes, a national ESSENCE instance, and management tools to support diverse data sharing needs. On August 21, 2017, a total solar eclipse occurred over much of the United States. The event resulted in large gatherings over multiple days to areas in the Path of Totality (PoT). In the days leading up to the event, public health and emergency preparedness included syndromic surveillance in their monitoring plans. To support this effort, Illinois (IL), Kentucky (KY), and Tennessee (TN) established inter-jurisdictional aggregate data sharing to get a more inclusive view of cause-specific illness or injury in Emergency Department (ED) visits before, during, and after the eclipse.MethodsFollowing best practices outlined by colleagues at Oregon Health Authority, in their July 2017 guidelines “Using ESSENCE for Mass Gathering Surveillance”, the tristate collaboration between IL, KY, and TN provided participating state-level epidemiologists access to aggregate data in all three states. Dashboards for each state were created to include hospital ED visits in counties that fell in the PoT and shared to view trends in syndromes such as gastrointestinal illness (GI), Influenza-like Illness, heat-related illness (HRI), and substance abuse. Counts from event-specific keyword queries related to the eclipse were also shared.ResultsShared dashboards included data from 64 facilities (31 IL, 10 KY, and 23 TN) and monitoring was performed from August 16 – August 23. During the monitoring period, 41,507 ED visits were reported from the shared facilities (10,610 IL; 7,740 KY; 23,157 TN). Out of state residents accounted between 3% to 8.6% of reported visits.There was a sharp increase in ED visits referencing the eclipse across all three states during the monitoring period. A total of 71 visits were identified as eclipse-related (19 IL, 44 KY, and 8 TN). KY requested one hospital to identify patient encounters related to the eclipse by including the term “eclipse” in the patient chief complaint, IL and TN did not. Minor fluctuations in syndrome trends were observed across all three states.ConclusionsMass gatherings may cause a sudden increase of healthcare resource utilization in the municipalities where they occur. In IL and KY, the PoT occurred over a rural part of each state, whereas in TN the path went through a major metropolitan area. ED coverage and completeness varied across all three states. Expanded data access and visualization of syndromes in nearby states allowed IL, KY, and TN to enhance their surveillance efforts and verify observed syndromic trends across jurisdictional boundaries. The ESSENCE instance in the BioSense platform fostered a collaborative environment that quickly enabled the sharing of limited data across multiple jurisdictions during the August 21, 2017 total solar eclipse.

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