RSS
Home
Solar Eclipse Darkens the Arctic
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
Aug. 1 solar elipse aross the Arctic/NASA Terra statellit
As a rare solar eclipse blotted out Earth's sun on August 1, NASA's Terra satellite snapped this picture while sailing from the eastern tip of Siberia across the Arctic Ocean towards northern Norway and northwest Russia. It's a spectacular photo of the moon moving between Earth and the sun, sculpted across one of the most mysterious regions of our planet.
The circular disk of the moon casts an oval-shaped shadow across the left edge of this image. In the region of totality, where the moon entirely obscures the sun, the shadow is complete. The edges of the shadow are fuzzy, gradually lightening from black to red, brown, and yellow until the shadow is no longer discernable.
Featured in the agency's "Image of the Day" collection, this photo was provided by Jeff Schmaltz of the MODIS Rapid Response Team. Taken between between 9:35 and 9:45 UTC, it shows the area where the sun was completely blotted out for about two minutes. As Earth rotated, the shadow moved southeast across the surface.
Terra was launched Dec. 18, 1999 aboard an unmanned Atlas IIAS rocket. Part of the Earth Observing System (EOS) series, Terra began harvesting data on Feb. 24, 200. It monitors and studies Earth's environment and changes in our climate through five remote sensors.
Related Articles:
Add a Comment
