by While people will enjoy the GLORY of the total solar eclipse as it sweeps across several states in the United States on April 8, 2024, the celestial event will also feature flora and fauna.
That’s why the NASA-funded Eclipse Soundscapes Project will observe and record the sights and sounds of a total solar eclipse to help humanity better understand how such events can affect wildlife. The agency is urging the public to participate in this effort as well.
“Eclipses are often thought of as a visual event—something you see,” Kelsey Perrett, Communications Coordinator for the Soundscapes Eclipse Project, said in a statement. “We want to show that eclipses can be studied in a multi-sensory way, through sound and feel and other types of observation.”
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Total solar eclipses like the one on April 8th are caused by the Earth, moon and sun aligning so that the moon passes directly in front of our star and blocks the solar disk from our vantage point. But, because the moon is relatively close to the Earth, its position in the sky changes from place to place, which means that an eclipse can only be seen in certain areas. Even in regions where the eclipse is visible, the extent to which the moon covers the sun can change.
It is said that the regions that will see the sun will be completely covered by the moon during the eclipse on the “path of totality.” In these areas, the sky will be dark; stars may even be visible in the sky. It will be visible because the dusk has fallen, and the darkness of the sun also causes the temperature to drop.
This “false dusk” of the eclipse was associated with strange animal behaviour, such as birds stopping their songs, insects such as grasshoppers and crickets stopping their chirps and bees returning to their hives early.
As the 2024 solar eclipse passes through the skies above approximately 30 million people in North America, it presents the opportunity to do some fascinating citizen science and investigate how the event affects wildlife in their daily lives change day.
The Eclipse Soundscapes Project replicates a similar study that followed the 1932 total solar eclipse, which crossed the northeastern US and Canada; but, while that experiment gathered around 500 comments from the public, this new effort is more ambitious.
The Eclipse Soundscapes Project will use modern technology to collect multi-sensory observations, such as sound recordings, during the eclipse, and participants will also make written accounts of what is seen, heard or felt during the event. One of the aims of the project will be to see how animals that are awake during the day react to the eclipse in contrast to those that are active at night. For example, the researchers behind the project want to know whether diurnal or nocturnal animals become louder during the eclipse.
“The more audio data and observations we have, the better we can answer these questions,” Perrett said. “Contributions from participating scientists will allow us to drill down into specific ecosystems and determine how the eclipse may affect each.”
Organizers of the Eclipse Soundscapes Project are looking for participants of all skill levels to get involved in data collection, whether they are in the path of totality on April 8 or not.
Citizen scientists involved in the Eclipse Soundscape Project will use a low-cost audio recording device equipped with a micro-SD card called an “AudioMoth” to record the “sounds” of the eclipse. Other participants can be “observers” who document the multi-sensory data they receive as the eclipse passes overhead.
The project also has roles designed to be accessible to people who are blind or visually impaired.
Other roles in the project include “data analysts” who can analyze audio data after the eclipse and “apprentices” who can study eclipses online, and each role is awarded a downloadable certificate.
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“When it comes down to it, depending on our scientific questions to answer about how eclipses affect life on Earth completely on the data that people voluntarily contribute,” said Perrett. “Our participants, including our project partners and facilitators, allow us to run the entire trail and collect more data than one small team could.”
If you want to learn more about the Eclipse Soundscapes project or find out how you can get involved, you can visit this website. And if you’re not lucky enough to live in a state that will experience the total solar eclipse, you can watch the total solar eclipse live right here on Space.com.
