haystack hair, rocks, rivers

A collaboration between researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Haystack Observatory and researchers at the University of Tromsø in Norway revealed the waves in our planet’s ionosphere, the ionized section of its upper atmosphere. The researchers tracked the waves using satellite data from 2,000 sensors placed at different locations across the United States, according to Gizmodo. A paper describing the work as “the first unambiguous evidence” of atmospheric bow waves was published in the scientific journal Geophysical Research Letters.

When the Earth’s moon passes in front of the sun, it temporarily blocks not only the light we receive from the sun but also its heat. The shadowed zone, as Gizmodo explained, sees a marked drop in heat energy, and because that zone isn’t a single static location but moves along as the moon does, it creates a bow wave effect as it travels: a ripple of contrasting, decreased heat energy moving across the atmosphere.

http://www.newsweek.com/august-solar-eclipse-created-bow-waves-earths-atmosphere-phenomenon-never-seen-758831