Quantifying the Meteorological Effects of the 2017 Great American Solar Eclipse Using Citizen Scientist Observations

Solar eclipses provide the scientific community with a natural experiment of the processes within the Earth system. Through the rapid reduction and recovery of surface insolation, the short-term interrelationships between surface fluxes, clouds, temperature, and other meteorological components. Past observations of the eclipse-induced temperature perturbation show a wide range of values dependent on multiple factors. One of the primary factors is prevailing cloud cover, which is challenging to quantify. The large public interest in the 21 August 2017 eclipse provided an opportunity for a study of the eclipse using citizen science. Inspired by past citizen science efforts, the GLOBE Observer (GO) program organized a citizen science campaign for the 2017 eclipse. The large number of observers combined with their ability to travel to meteorologically important areas provided nearly unbroken coverage of the path of totality, and provides a useful complementary view of the eclipse with the automated networks. Primary questions: 1) What is the quantitative relationship between prevailing cloud cover and eclipse-induced temperature perturbation according to citizen scientist observations? 2) How well do the results from the citizen scientist observations compare with those from conventional ground observing stations?