The 2017 Great Solar Eclipse Project

August 21st marked the date for America's great solar eclipse. It was the first to cross in totality form the left border of the United States to the right in almost 100 years. A map of this event is shown below:

Image from: https://time.com/4902132/solar-eclipse-path/

One of these locations was Newport, Oregon, where 11 students from San Jose State University studied the event by launching radiosondes before, during, and after the eclipse. It was an extraordinary event to witness, and using data collected for its duration was very exciting. When the data is processed, it will be used to give a better understanding of how the atmosphere reacts when there is a disruption in it. Therefore, my role was data-collection rather than performing actual research, but it was such a cool experience I felt it was worth mentioning!

Below is a news interview with more information about the project, and a timelapse of the actual eclipse taken with my GoPro. Though the video doesn't do the beauty of the eclipse justice, it does capture how quickly clouds formed with dropping temperatures over the pan of just a few minutes.