In the summer of 2017, a total solar eclipse inspired many Americans with awe, as the moon passed in front of the sun briefly turning day to night. The view seen here from NOAA's GOES satellite, appears similar to what the shadow of the eclipse would look like if you were sitting on the satellite with binoculars.
The NOAA GOES, which stands for Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite, views both the Earth and the Sun from geostationary orbit, meaning that it rotates at the same speed as Earth and consistently looks at the same region of the planet. NOAA forecasts not just Earth weather but also space weather as a result of the data gathered from GOES. And to monitor space weather, we must be able to see the Sun all the time also, at least part of the Sun that faces us which changes since the sun also rotates.
This dataset also has a video clip from NASA Goddard's "The Moon's Role in a Solar Eclipse." This clip answers many frequently asked questions about solar eclipses, including when and why they happen. Click here to watch the whole video, which includes details on NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Mission.
Images from GOES were obtained from NOAA's VizLab and reprojected using ArcGIS Pro (for a free alternative use QGIS). The NASA video was obtained from NASA's Solar System Exploration and edited using a free open source video editing software Shotcut.
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