The total solar eclipse on April 8 is almost approaching. The event will see the sky over a swath of the United States, Mexico and Canada darken as the moon completely covers the sun along a swath 115 miles wide (185 kilometers) and 10,000 miles long (16,000 km). the path of integrity.
In the United States, the eclipse will extend from Texas to Maine and pass many major cities, including San Antonio, Dallas, Little Rock, Indianapolis, Cleveland and Buffalo. Eclipses are actually not that rare; Total solar eclipses occur approximately once every 16 months somewhere on Earth, while partial solar eclipses occur even more frequently, approximately once every five months.
In a recent study conducted by Time and Date in preparation for the April 8 event, researchers set out to discover which cities on Earth experienced the most eclipses. The results also add greater precision to eclipse frequency estimates.
Relating to: Total solar eclipse 2024: Everything you need to know
The study team examined a staggering 15,000 years of eclipse data. This allowed them to improve on predictions made in 1982 by astronomer Jean Meeus, who studied total and annular solar eclipses over a 600-year period.
“Following in the footsteps of famous astronomer Jean Meeus has been an exciting project and a surprisingly challenging challenge,” Time and Date astronomy team member Frank Tveter said in a statement. “Overall, we had to do over a trillion checks on eclipses to calculate a single number.”
Which cities are at the top of the eclipse lists?
The team’s results suggest that, on average, any random city on Earth will experience a total solar eclipse every 374 years. The same city will experience an annular or “ring of fire” eclipse approximately every 226 years and a partial solar eclipse every 2.6 years.
The findings also revealed more details about the “latitude effect” in Meeus’s study; This suggests that solar eclipses occur more frequently at higher latitudes around the Arctic and Antarctic circles. While a solar eclipse occurs approximately every 2.8 years in places close to the equator, a solar eclipse occurs on average every 2.2 years in the Arctic and Antarctic regions.
Why is this? The sun stays above the horizon longer at these higher latitudes, which means there is more time for solar eclipses to occur there. So statistically a good place to wait for the eclipse would be Longyearbyen in Svalbard, Norway, which is the world’s northernmost settlement despite having a population of just over 2,000.
RELATED STORIES:
— A ‘horned’ comet may be visible during the 2024 total solar eclipse
— How will photos of the April 8 solar eclipse help us understand the sun’s atmosphere?
— How fast will the total solar eclipse in April travel?
Researchers also discovered that cities in the Northern Hemisphere are more likely to experience a total solar eclipse than those in the Southern Hemisphere.
Because in the Northern Hemisphere, the summer season, when the hours the Sun spends above the horizon in this part of the globe becomes longer, coincides with the point in the Earth’s orbit where our planet and the Sun are farthest. This means that the sun is smaller in the sky and therefore more likely to be completely covered by the lunar disk during the Northern Hemisphere summer.
But the timing of Earth’s approach to the Sun varies throughout the year, a cycle that lasts about 25,000 years. According to the team, this means that in about 10,000 years, this point, or “aphelion,” will coincide with winter in the Northern Hemisphere, and the frequency of solar eclipses will favor the Southern Hemisphere.
No matter how often solar eclipses occur in the bush, and whether you live in Longyearbyen or Pontianak, Indonesia, right on the equator, don’t take any chances when viewing any eclipse.
If you’re considering viewing any of these phases of the total eclipse on April 8, the most important thing to consider is how to view it safely. Since looking at the sun at any time without adequate protection is harmful to the eyes, those watching the eclipse should take precautions on Monday.
Sunglasses, no matter how dark they are, cannot protect the eyes from the sun’s influence, so special eclipse glasses made of safe solar filter materials will be needed. If skywatchers plan to view the event through a telescope, special filters will be needed to make this a safe viewing experience.
Our guide to how to observe the sun safely tells you everything you need to know about safe solar observations.
The Time and Date team is currently working to compile their methods and findings into a full paper for submission to the Journal of the British Astronomical Association.