Streaming Eclipse at OWC flux tower

Solar corona and the US-OWC Ameriflux tower, at OWC-NERR (image credit – Gil Bohrer)

We were lucky enough to have the total eclipse of 2024 pass directly above the Old Woman Creek (OWC) flux site (run by Gil Bohrer’s team from Ohio State University; https://ameriflux.lbl.gov/sites/siteinfo/US-OWC). It is guaranteed to happen at any given point on Earth once in 375 years, and we where lucky to have it happen in our site this year. We had more than three minutes of totality, with mostly clear sky. Old Woman Creek, near Huron Ohio (https://ohiodnr.gov/go-and-do/plan-a-visit/find-a-property/old-woman-creek-nerr-state-nature-preserve), is a state nature preserve and one of the National Estuarine Research Reserves (NERRs). It is operated by the amazing staff of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. It is also the site of an Ameriflux flux tower, measuring meteorological variables (temperature, humidity, solar radiation), water vapor, and greenhouse gas exchanges (CO₂ and methane) between the ecosystem and the atmosphere.

The OWC staff readied the visitor center to host public viewing of the eclipse, in a beautiful natural setting, surrounded by forest, meadow, water, and many birds. As part of the events, we connected the visitor center computer to the flux tower datalogger by cellular modem and streamed a live plot of the incoming solar radiation in the visitor center, and blogged it live on the OWC facebook site (https://www.facebook.com/OWCNERR/). While streaming facebook live was transcribing whatever people said, if they were near the computer. We captured some excited responses.

Screenshot of the facebook live stream from the solar radiation data log.

All we have to do now is wait another 375 years to see it again in OWC. It’s worth it!