The Sun’s corona, its outermost atmosphere, is typically only visible to the naked eye during a total solar eclipse. The SwRI-led Citizen Continental-America Telescopic Eclipse (CATE) 2024 project evaluated special cameras to measure the polarization of coronal light during the April 2023 total solar eclipse in Exmouth, Western Australia. In this image, the colors indicate the polarization or orientation of the light. The white features, called prominences, have no polarization.

Citizen CATE 2024

We collected data and it will be made available soon!

In collaboration with about 40 teams of citizen scientists, Citizen Continental-America Telescope Eclipse (CATE) made polarized observations of the Sun’s corona during the April 8, 2024 total solar eclipse as it crossed the United States from Texas to Maine. These relay teams of trained volunteers with identical telescopes along the eclipse path allowed for an extended observation of the lower to middle corona.