The team intends to exploit an upcoming total solar eclipse that will traverse the entire continental United States, from Oregon to South Carolina, on August 21, 2017. The team will use this event as a unique research and educational opportunity, creating a final product they refer to as the "Eclipse Megamovie Project" (hereinafter EMP). The team's leadership notes that their "Eclipse Megamovie" will provide unprecedented information about the physics of the solar atmosphere in slow-motion. Never before has a total solar eclipse been tracked seamlessly with high time resolution for intervals longer than a few minutes (which is all that is possible from a single observing station's view of totality). The EMP team's planned 2017 event will be unique in this regard.
As a prelude to the EMP effort, the team will use the imminent total solar eclipse of November 13, 2012 that will cross the Coral Sea and North-Eastern Australia as a proof-of-concept. The swift approach of this eclipse event over Australia is the primary justification of this activity as a RAPID project. After careful review and analysis of their 2012 Australian eclipse experience, the team will then plan the EMP in order to assemble a large number of solar images, obtained by US student and amateur observers along the 2017 eclipse path, into a continuous record of solar chromospheric and coronal evolution the hour and a half that totality will endure over the continental US.
The resulting "Eclipse Megamovie" will provide a fantastic opportunity for public education and outreach. The EMP team will reach out to K-12 students, to universities, and to amateur astronomy groups (primarily in those US states over which the eclipse will pass) through internet webcasts, social media sites, and hard-copy posters which will be widely distributed. The team note that many amateur solar astronomy groups have already heard of the EMP effort through a preliminary description of the concept published on the internet. Where possible, EMP team members would build on this initial excitement and help promote the project by visiting interested groups and potential observing sites. This effort will stimulate STEM education among K-12 students and at universities, as well as reach a wide swath of the general public worldwide. The EMP team's educational materials and subsequent potential TV documentaries will ensure significant impact for many years after the 2017 event.
On November 14th 2012 a total solar eclipse traversed Northern Queensland Australia. It is was our goal to assemble a large number of images, obtained by observers (amateur and professional) on the path of totality, into a continuous record of solar evolution over that time - an Eclipse Megamovie. This eclipse and megamovie project provided a fantastic opportunity for public education and outreach about the Sun and its connection to our planet. Using more than 3000 images supplied by citizen and professional scientists observing the eclipse we were able to build an analysis process and a prototype megamovie.The movie – while rudimentary in such a controlled small-scale experiment - was successfully built using a set of heterogeneous images from more than 300 disctinct citizen scientists. This event provided both a proof-of-concept, and a rare opportunity, to develop infrastructure and materials for a pair of total solar eclipses that will transit the entire continental US in August of 2017 and April of 2024 in a very much smaller, controlled environment. We anticipate the pair of "Great American Eclipses" will captivate the country and permit a new level of engagement regardign our star and its interaction with our planet. This NSF RAPID proposal requested funding for the Australian pilot project: including the development of a web server, image acquisition/calibration software as well as education and outreach materials about eclipses.
