Abstract
A thermal wake occurs when a high altitude balloon (HAB) influences and changes the surrounding ambient atmospheric temperature of the air through which it passes. This effect warms the air below the balloon to greater than the ambient temperatures during daytime flights, and cooler than ambient temperatures during nighttime flights. The total solar eclipse of August 21st, 2017, provided us with an opportunity to study these balloon induced temperature transitions from daytime, to eclipsed induced night conditions over the scale of a single flight. To measure these transitions, St. Catherine University and the University of Minnesota, Morris, flew over 40 temperature sensors suspended beneath weather balloons ascending within the path of totality. Stratospheric temperature data collected during the eclipse show evidence of both daytime and nighttime wake temperature profiles.
Highlights
The total solar eclipse of August 21st, 2017, (Fig. 1) provided researchers with an opportunity to investigate atmospheric based changes within the Moon’s shadow
Building upon previous work [5,6,7,8,9] measuring how the proximity of an ascending HAB affects atmospheric temperature measurements beneath the balloon, we studied thermal effects and transitions in the stratosphere during the solar eclipse
It is clear from these groupings that eclipse day atmospheric temperatures plotted as a function of altitude are more similar to the night flight than the pre-eclipse day flights
Summary
The total solar eclipse of August 21st, 2017, (Fig. 1) provided researchers with an opportunity to investigate atmospheric based changes within the Moon’s shadow. Throughout a solar eclipse this shadow provides a moving region where heating from the Sun’s radiation is reduced, creating a predictable perturbation for studying the atmosphere’s response to changes in solar heating. Eckerman [1] theoretically modeled an eclipse and Ramkumar [2] experimentally measured temperature changes using radiosondes during a solar eclipse. Their results suggest that the stratosphere cools due to radiation heating losses during solar obscuration. We further predicted that daytime thermal wake profiles measured under HABs would become like nighttime thermal wake profiles as a result of eclipse-induced solar radiation reduction
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