The National Eclipse Weather Experiment: an assessment of citizen scientist weather observations

Abstract

The National Eclipse Weather Experiment (NEWEx) was a citizen science project designed to assess the effects of the 20 March 2015 partial solar eclipse on the weather over the United Kingdom (UK). NEWEx had two principal objectives: to provide a spatial network of meteorological observations across the UK to aid the investigation of eclipse-induced weather changes, and to develop a nationwide public engagement activity-based participation of citizen scientists. In total, NEWEx collected 15 606 observations of air temperature, cloudiness and wind speed and direction from 309 locations across the UK, over a 3 h window spanning the eclipse period. The headline results were processed in near real time, immediately published online, and featured in UK national press articles on the day of the eclipse. Here, we describe the technical development of NEWEx and how the observations provided by the citizen scientists were analysed. By comparing the results of the NEWEx analyses with results from other investigations of the same eclipse using different observational networks, including measurements from the University of Reading’s Atmospheric Observatory, we demonstrate that NEWEx provided a fair representation of the change in the UK meteorological conditions throughout the eclipse. Despite the simplicity of the approach adopted, robust reductions in both temperature and wind speed during the eclipse were observed.This article is part of the themed issue ‘Atmospheric effects of solar eclipses stimulated by the 2015 UK eclipse’.

The National Eclipse Weather Experiment: use and evaluation of a citizen science tool for schools outreach

“…We have also explored the demographics of schools taking part in the CS project, together with their feedback about the experience. We summarize the highlights of our findings below: — A fundamental part of NEWEx was conveying the enthusiasm for the science opportunity in getting schools across the UK involved in weather data collection for the 20 March 2015 solar eclipse; Barnard et al [7] report that half of the data submitted coincide with the peak of the eclipse, which can be seen as a genuine interest from volunteers to contribute to scientific research.— Postcode analyses mapped 47% of NEWEx submissions to schools.— Schools that participated were not evenly distributed across the country, with a high proportion (22%) coming from the South East. In total, 43.3% of schools were identified as primary, 35.4% as secondary and for the remaining 21.3% of schools this distinction was not applicable.…”

“…[7] in this issue. In this paper, we focus on its use as a tool for schools outreach and reflect on the design of the data collection activity through the use of webforms.…”

Effects of vernal equinox solar eclipse on temperature and wind direction in Switzerland

“…Although all contributions are relevant, we specifically refer only to the articles with a direct link to our own study (Aplin et al, 2016;Clark, 2016;Good, 2016;Hanna et al, 2016;Burt, 2016;Pasachoff et al, 2016;Gray and Harrison, 2016;Portas et al, 2016;Barnard et al, 2016).…”

“…During future eclipses it may now become possible to engage citizen scientists to determine the temperature drop during an eclipse and relate it to the probability distribution presented in Table 3 or to the gamma distribution of Eq. (4) and Table 2, which would put their measurements into context (see also Portas et al, 2016;Barnard et al, 2016). Differences in temperature drops among different eclipse events depend on the solar elevation at the time of the eclipse (Reynolds, 1937).…”

“…4800 km (3000 mi). Bilham (1921) was the first to empirically confirm an indirect effect of the cooling during occultation on wind direction. He reported that "the wind showed a marked tendency to back" (as expected from cyclonic influence of the thermal wind), consistent with the cold-core cyclone in the umbral ( zone.…”