NASA defines a solar eclipse as an event that occurs when “the Sun, the Moon, and Earth line up, either fully or partially. Depending on how they align, eclipses provide a unique, exciting view of either the Sun or the Moon.” (NASA)
A total solar eclipse happens when the Moon passes between the Sun and Earth, casting a shadow on Earth that fully blocks the Sun’s light in some areas. This only happens occasionally, because the Moon doesn't orbit in the exact same plane as the Sun and Earth do. The time when they are aligned is known as eclipse season, which can happen twice a year.
Eclipse Megamovie is funded by NASA to discover the secret lives of solar jets and plumes. A solar jet, or solar spicule, is a transient, jet-like feature in the Sun's atmosphere. To learn more about these phenomena, we enlisted the help of photographers across the U.S. to take photographs of totality with very specific instructions that enable us to align and orient the pictures in order to study the behavior of the sun–particularly when it comes to jets and plumes. We get to look at parts of the sun (the solar corona) that are normally not visible or photographable by cameras–not even some of NASA’s cameras! Because of how bright the sun is, specifically the sun's photosphere, it can be quite challenging to photograph the sun's corona. A total solar eclipse presents the perfect chance to photograph the solar corona and study the photographs.
Many jets and plumes seem to disappear or change from the time they are formed on the Sun and when they move out into the solar wind. Our ultimate goal is to learn more about these solar phenomena using photographs taken by volunteers to identify solar jets and plumes as they grow and develop. These jets and plumes will be compared with NASA observations of jets and plumes near the photosphere where they originate and in the outer corona.
It takes many steps to get to this final goal. The next step in the process is to ensure that the data can be quickly organized and has the correct information (metadata) associated with each image. By developing code that accurately identifies the solar eclipse phases within photographs submitted by volunteers, we will be crossing a major data processing hurdle. With our code, we are paving the way for this NASA-funded research endeavor to study solar jets and plasma plumes!
Our mission is to create the most accurate sorting machine that categorizes a solar eclipse photograph into a specific solar eclipse phase. Our code is able to successfully categorize the photographs provided into the following categories: Darks or flats (calibration shots), partial eclipse phases (bins of 20 degrees), the diamond ring phase, total solar eclipse phases, and of course a category for things that are not solar eclipses.