Student Hands-on Atmospheric Discovery during an Eclipse (SHADE) Over Texas

ABSTRACT: On April 8, 2024, from 18 to 11 Z, a total solar eclipse overpassed Texas in the southern portion of the United States. To monitor the impact of the total solar eclipse, a group of students from Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi developed two weather balloons and ground-based instrument packages using a Raspberry Pi Pico along with a combination of low cost and professionally manufactured sensors and deployed to six different sites spanning nearly 600 km along the total eclipse path from the Mexican border to North Texas to collect atmospheric data. The data collection encompassed atmospheric conditions at the ground level and throughout the atmosphere to include the vertical atmospheric electric field, temperature, humidity, pressure, wind data, aerosol particulate matter, and other parameters. Preliminary results show that there were consistent variations in air temperature and relative humidity at all six stations due to the prompt elimination of sensible heating during the total eclipse. However, no consistent variation patterns in pressure, wind speed and direction, aerosol concentration, and the vertical atmospheric electric field were found among the six sites during the event. Two balloon launches captured the damping of the sunlight and ultraviolet radiation in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere throughout the event. However, no significant influences from the eclipse to the ozone concentration and air turbulence in the lower stratosphere are found. This field campaign has provided invaluable experiences in instrumentation and field work to the students from a minority serving institute.