Solar eclipse of March 20, 2015

Dublin, Ireland

Map

Type of eclipse

Nature TotalGamma 0.9454Magnitude 1.0445

Maximum eclipse

Solar eclipse of March 20, 2015From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A total solar eclipse occurred onFriday March 20, 2015. A solareclipse occurs when the Moonpasses between Earth and theSun, thereby totally or partlyobscuring the image of the Sunfor a viewer on Earth. A totalsolar eclipse occurs when theMoon's apparent diameter islarger than the Sun's, blockingall direct sunlight, turning dayinto darkness. Totality occurs in anarrow path across Earth'ssurface, with the partial solareclipse visible over a surroundingregion thousands of kilometreswide.

It had a magnitude of 1.045. Thelongest duration of totality was 2minutes and 47 seconds off thecoast of the Faroe Islands. It isthe last total solar eclipse visiblein Europe until the eclipse ofAugust 12, 2026.[1]

The only populated placesreachable by public land travelfrom which the totality could beseen were the Faroe Islands andSvalbard.[2]

Contents

1 Viewing

1.1 Impact

1.2 Coincidence of

events

1.3 Simulation

2 Gallery

3 Related eclipses

Duration 2m 47sCoordinates 64.4N 6.6WMax. width of band 463 km

Times (UTC)

Greatest eclipse 9:46:47

References

Saros 120 (61 of 71)Catalog # (SE5000) 9541

3.1 Lunar eclipses

3.2 Solar eclipses

2015–2018

3.3 Saros series

3.4 Metonic series

4 References

5 Bibliography

6 External links

Viewing

The solar eclipse began at 08:30GMT in northwest Europe and moved towardsthe northeast but still in northern Europe. It was most visible from the NorthAtlantic and Arctic Oceans, Greenland, Iceland, Republic of Ireland, UnitedKingdom, Faroe Islands, northern Norway and Murmansk Oblast. The shadowbegan its pass off the south coast of Greenland. It then moved to the northeast,passing between Iceland and the United Kingdom before moving over theFaroe Islands and the northernmost islands of Norway. The shadow of theeclipse was visible in varying degrees all over continental Europe.[3] Forexample, London experienced an 85% partial solar eclipse while points north ofthe Faroe Islands in the Norwegian Sea saw a complete solar eclipse.[4]

The eclipse was observed at radio frequencies at the Metsähovi RadioObservatory, Finland, where a near total eclipse was seen.[5]

Impact

The European Union has a solar power output of about 90 gigawatts andproduction could have been temporarily decreased by up to 34 GW of thatdependent on the clarity of the sky. In actuality the dip was less than expected,with a 13 GW drop in Germany happening due to overcast skies.[6] This wasthe first time that an eclipse had a significant impact on the power system, andthe electricity sector took measures to mitigate the impact. The power gradient(change in power) may be −400 MW/minute and +700 MW/minute. Places inNetherlands, Belgium and Denmark may be 80% obscured.[7][8] Temperaturemay decrease by 3 °C, and wind power may decrease as winds are reduced by0.7 m/s.[9]

Coincidence of events

20 March 2015 was also the day of the March equinox (also known as thespring or vernal equinox in the Northern Hemisphere). In addition, sixsupermoons are expected for 2015. The supermoon on 20 March 2015 was the

third of the year; however, it was a new moon (near side facing away from thesun), and only its shadow was visible.[10]

Simulation

Gallery

Congresbury,Somerset, UnitedKingdom, 9:35(GMT)

Lisbon, Portugal,from 8:15 through10:00 [11]

Sheffield, UK. Alltime local time(GMT)

Chester-le-Street,UK, 9:07 GMT

Lorient, France,10:19:54 localtime (9:19:54GMT)

Huddersfield, UK,9:20:25 GMT

Berlin, Germany,10:28:36 localtime (9:28:36UTC) –unconfirmedsource

Dublin, Ireland,9:30:09 GMT

Hjartdal, Norway,10:47:00 localtime (9:47:00UTC)

Kłodzko, Poland,10:54:15 localtime (9:54:15UTC)

Wrocław, Poland,10:43:55 localtime (9:43:55UTC)

Prague, CzechRepublic, 10:55:43local time (9:55:43UTC) –unconfirmedsource

Warsaw, Poland,10:56:00 localtime (9:56:00UTC)

Budapest,Hungary, 10:59:45local time (9:59:45UTC)

Milan, Italy,11:07:49 (10:07:49UTC) –unconfirmedsource

Kiev, Ukraine,12:28:17 localtime (10:28:17UTC)

Ulcinj,Montenegro,11:34:14 localtime (10:34:14UTC)

Moscow, Russia,13:35:27 localtime (10:35:27UTC)

Erlangen,Germany, 10:13:00local time(10:13:00 UTC)

Related eclipses

Lunar eclipses

A total lunar eclipse will follow on April 4, 2015, visible over Australia, and thePacific coast of Asia and North America.[12]

Solar eclipses 2015–2018

Each member in a semester series of solar eclipses repeats approximatelyevery 177 days and 4 hours (a semester) at alternating nodes of the Moon'sorbit.

Solar eclipse series sets from 2015–2018

Descending node Ascending node

120

March 20, 2015

Total

125

September 13, 2015

Partial

130

March 9, 2016

Total

135

September 1, 2016

Annular

140

February 26, 2017

Annular

145

August 21, 2017

Total

150

February 15, 2018

Partial

155

August 11, 2018

Partial

Partial solar eclipses on July 13, 2018, and January 6,2019, occur during the next semester series.

Saros series

It is a part of Saros cycle 120, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, containing 71events. The series started with partial solar eclipse on May 27, 933 AD, andreached an annular eclipse on August 11, 1059. It was a hybrid event for 3dates: May 8, 1510, through May 29, 1546, and total eclipses from June 8,1564, through March 30, 2033. The series ends at member 71 as a partialeclipse on July 7, 2195. The longest duration of totality was 2 minutes, 16seconds on August 12, 1654.[13]

Series members 55–65 occur between 1901 and 2100:

55 56 57

January 14, 1907 January 24, 1925 February 4, 1943

58 59 60

February 15, 1961 February 26, 1979 March 9, 1997

61 62 63

March 20, 2015 March 30, 2033 April 11, 2051

64 65

April 21, 2069 May 2, 2087

Metonic series

The metonic series repeats eclipses every 19 years (6939.69 days), lastingabout 5 cycles. Eclipses occur in nearly the same calendar date. In addition theocton subseries repeats 1/5 of that or every 3.8 years (1387.94 days).

This series has 21 eclipse events between June 1, 2011 and June 1, 2087.

May 31 – June 1 March 20 January 5–6 October 24–25

118 119 121 123

June 1, 2011 March 20, 2015 January 6, 2019 October 25, 2022

128 129 131 133

June 1, 2030 March 20, 2034 January 5, 2038 October 25, 2041

138 139 141 143

May 31, 2049 March 20, 2053 January 5, 2057 October 24, 2060

148 149 151 153

May 31, 2068 March 19, 2072 January 6, 2076 October 24, 2079

157

June 1, 2087

References

F. Espenak and Xavier Jubier. "NASA - Total Solar Eclipse of 2026 August 12"

(http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEsearch/SEsearchmap.php?Ecl=20260812).

Retrieved 20 March 2015.

1.

20. marts 2015 — Total Solar Eclipse (http://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/solar

/2015-march-20) Time&Date

2.

"Solar eclipse 2015 live: Britain to plunge into morning twilight as Moon blocks

out Sun" (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/11484521/Solar-

eclipse-2015-live.html). Daily Telegraph. 20 March 2015. Retrieved 20 March

2015.

3.

"Solar Eclipse: live updates" (http://www.theguardian.com/science/live/2015

/mar/20/solar-eclipse-live-updates). Guardian. 20 March 2015. Retrieved 20 March

2015.

4.

"Solar eclipse as seen by a radio telescope" (http://www.metsahovi.fi

/sun/eclipse_2015/index_en.html). 20 March 2015. Retrieved 20 March 2015.

5.

European power grids keep lights on through solar eclipse

(http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/03/20/us-solar-eclipse-germany-

idUSKBN0MG0S620150320)

6.

"Solar Eclipse 2015 – Impact Analysis (https://www.entsoe.eu/Documents

/Publications/SOC/150219_Solar_Eclipse_Impact_Analysis_Final.pdf)"

pp3+6+7+13 . European Network of Transmission System Operators for

Electricity, 19 February 2015. Accessed: 4 March 2015.

7.

Curve of potential power loss (http://ing.dk/sites/ing/files/solformoerkelse.jpg)8.

S. L. Gray , R. G. Harrison. "Diagnosing eclipse-induced wind changes

(http://rspa.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/468/2143/1839)" Proceedings of

the Royal Society. DOI: 10.1098/rspa.2012.0007 Published 25 May 2012. Archive

(http://web.archive.org/web/20150304105008/http:

//rspa.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/468/2143/1839)

9.

"In 2015, first of six supermoons comes on January 20" (http://earthsky.org/tonight

/in-2015-the-first-of-six-supermoons-occurs-on-january-20). Retrieved 20 March

2015.

10.

Wikimedia Commonshas media related toSolar eclipse of2015 March 20.

"Instagram" (https://instagram.com/p/0ci9__lXwP/). Instagram. Retrieved

20 March 2015.

11.

2015 Apr 04 chart: (http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/LEplot/LEplot2001

/LE2015Apr04T.pdf) Eclipse Predictions by Fred Espenak, NASA/GSFC

12.

http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEsaros/SEsaros120.html13.

Bibliography

NASA graphics (http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEplot/SEplot2001

/SE2015Mar20T.GIF)

Google interactive map of the eclipse from NASA

(http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEgoogle/SEgoogle2001

/SE2015Mar20Tgoogle.html)

NASA Besselian Elements – Partial Solar Eclipse of 2007 September 11

(http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEsearch/SEdata.php?Ecl=20070911)

External links

Centered and aligned video recording of

full phase of total solar eclipse

(https://www.youtube.com

/watch?v=IMd1qvXfKeM) on YouTube

Eclipse spectacle (http://astrobob.areavoices.com/2015/03/20/eclipse-

spectacle-record-thin-moon-aurora-redux/) AstroBob, 3/20/15

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Solar_eclipse_of_March_20,_2015&oldid=652997903"

Categories: Total solar eclipses 2015 in Europe 2015 in science

21st-century solar eclipses

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