The Hidden Science of an Eclipse
- Victoria Jean Buckman
- Aug 12
- 5 min read
Updated: 7 days ago
A Team of Scientists Take To The Skies In Iceland During The 2026 Total Solar Eclipse
The impact of sudden darkness is a thing to behold, but what effect can this dramatic change have on our atmosphere? Could the Moon’s cold, dark shadow passing across the daytime sky become a natural laboratory for scientific study? The Nationwide Eclipse Ballooning Project (NEBP) offers spectacular high-altitude views while collecting valuable atmospheric data. These observations improve atmospheric models, helping scientists better understand weather systems and make future forecasts more accurate.
The NEBP began in 2014 at Montana State University by Dr. Angela Des Jardins with the goal of bringing student teams together to launch high-altitude balloons during solar eclipses, combining scientific research with stunning views from the edge of space. Since then, it has grown into a nationwide collaboration spanning multiple eclipse campaigns with two main tracks, allowing students to launch balloons up to 100,000 feet into the stratosphere:
Engineering Track, which focuses on building and operating technology and tools that allow us to photograph and study the eclipse.
Atmospheric Science Track, which focuses on collecting atmospheric data and studying what the eclipse does to the atmosphere.
We recently spoke with Dr. Matthew Bernards, a professor at the University of Idaho. Bernards is part of the scientific leadership behind the NEBP and spoke with us about the Atmospheric Science Track and the project’s impact. Through high-altitude balloon launches, his team studies how solar eclipses influence Earth’s atmosphere, collecting data on phenomena such as changes in the planetary boundary layer. Bernards and his students also help train and support other teams participating in this nationwide research effort. His team, co-located with a team from the University of Kentucky, has traveled to Iceland for this year's 2026 Total Solar Eclipse, launching every half hour during sunrise, sunset, and during the eclipse event and every hour during the day and overnight hours otherwise.
Iceland is a long way from Idaho. The team sent much of their gear and instruments ahead of time in preparation for this event. Iceland itself is special due to its geographic location. Bernards explains, "It's a little bit of a unique situation because it's the summer in Iceland, the Day/Night cycle, there's a lot more daylight hours in August in Iceland and so we're trying to understand how much the planetary boundary layer changes during the eclipse and compare that to how much it changes during the regular day/night cycle."
Positioned in a small field in Iceland was a select group of student scientists quietly moving through the crisp, still air. They carefully inflated 6- to 10-foot natural latex weather balloons with helium, attached their scientific instruments, and released them. They’ve been doing this long before the eclipse begins, repeating the process every half hour with remarkable determination, meticulously gathering data as their unusual instruments ascended higher into the atmosphere until they disappeared from view. Bernards and his team were measuring the rapid atmospheric changes occurring during the total solar eclipse, making the most of this rare solar event, and continued long after the event ended.
High-altitude balloons like those used in this project measure those changes as they travel up through the atmosphere. The data they collect during that time is what will help these scientists to understand several things:
Weather and climate models - providing real-world measurements that can help refine computer models used for forecasting
The boundary layer - the lowest part of the atmosphere where most weather occurs and where temperature, wind, and moisture interact with Earth's surface.
How energy moves through the atmosphere - improving models of atmospheric circulation.
How gravity waves form and travel - important because these waves can influence winds, storms, and jet stream behavior.
The technology is relatively similar to what is used by the National Weather Service to monitor changes in weather patterns, but in this case, Bernards and his team are sending the balloons at a much faster frequency. "We're just in a unique position where we're able to do this robust series of launches." He explains, being at an eclipse event. The Iceland team is using small Radiosondes that weigh less than 190 grams. These measure atmospheric parameters like gravity waves, planetary boundary layer changes, and weather patterns such as temperature, pressure, humidity, wind direction and speed. This data is fed back live to the scientists to review (you can always track weather balloon data feeds at SondeHub.org).
What will Bernards do with this data? "We're going to study how that evolves both for the normal day which is why we're doing half-hour launches at sunrise/sunset, and comparing to how that is impacted by the eclipse and the loss of all the solar energy." It doesn't end here. The data will be analyzed long after the eclipse ends. Bernards tells us, “We also have the historic data from multiple locations from the 2024 eclipse and the 2023 annular eclipse, so we can compare that evolution process between them to see if there is any influence from the longer days that Iceland has at that time of year.”
The data will also be made publicly accessible, allowing researchers and students to use it for their own projects. It will be shared with Dr. Jie Gong, a NASA Goddard atmospheric scientist and NEBP Subject Matter Expert, who will help analyze the data collected. Gong's work has been instrumental in investigating how the Moon's shadow affects Earth's atmosphere, which includes discovering atmospheric gravity waves generated by eclipse events.
Could the findings from this research lead to new questions and further investigation by the NEBP? That may become clearer as researchers analyze the data collected during this year’s total solar eclipse, looking for patterns, anomalies, and atmospheric responses that warrant further study. The resulting dataset could help shape future research questions and guide subsequent NEBP investigations. In the meantime, we know their contributions will help continue to refine weather models across the country and the imagery will be enjoyed by many solar enthusiasts. "There's awesome science taking place." Bernards remarks in closing, and I couldn't agree more.
