A New View on the Sun: Breakthrough Findings From the 2024 Total Solar Eclipse

Observations from airborne and ground-based sources offer unique data and engage the public.
Teams led by Southwest Research Institute successfully executed two groundbreaking experiments — by land and air — collecting unique solar data from the total eclipse that cast a shadow from Texas to Maine on April 8, 2024.

The Citizen Continental-America Telescopic Eclipse (CATE) 2024 experiment engaged more than 200 community participants in a broad, approachable, and inclusive attempt to make a continuous 60-minute high-resolution movie of this exciting event. A nearly simultaneous investigation used unique equipment installed in NASA’s WB-57F research aircraft to chase the eclipse shadow, making observations only accessible from a bird’s eye view.