Exploiting Tomorrow's Solar Eclipse To Help Understand Sea Levels

mdsolar writes "Tomorrow at dawn on the U.S. East Coast, a partial solar eclipse will rise. Solar eclipses have many uses. They can confirm the Theory of Relativity, allow study of the solar corona, and this week, help prepare for global warming induced sea level rise. The tides induced in the oceans when the Sun and Moon are aligned are particularly high (and low) and give a foretaste of the effects of sea level rise in the coming decades. Maryland's Department of Natural Resources is asking for photos of these King Tides to help with preparation for the effect of sea level rise. Way to get out front, Maryland."

Comments

Re:Yes, it is.

[Moridineas]

I'm American and I've definitely heard "get in front of a problem" but I've never heard it shortened to just "get out front" as it was in the story (nor removed from context as it was). I was confused as well. Perhaps the submitter was just being idiosyncratic.

Re:Nice, but....

[gmuslera]

Math is nice, let you build models, make predictions and so on, but it could describe anything possible or impossible in any potential universe, To be sure that it fits in our universe, you must contrast it with reality. Einstein's theory was a bunch of complex equations, but was matching those equations predictions with reality that gave them validity.

In this particular case, observing it could tell that our guesses had some ground, or that were more or less severe of what is really happening, because maybe some factors we aren't measuring or aren't fully understood yet.

Re:Nice, but....

[symbolset]

We really need to get to the root of how antropogenic climate change is causing solar eclipses. If this keeps happening eventually the moon will come between the Earth and the sun permanently, leading to an eternal night cursed with ever increasing temperatures. Crops will simultaneously wilt and catch fire. With the right global publicity board report we should be able to get a bunch of powerless scientists to achieve a high degree of consensus about the subject, and then do nothing.

Re:USA Today

[Fwipp]

Dang, where are you at? NoScript only passed partially in front of the logo in my area. You're really lucky to see the full eclipse!

Eclipse not needed

[Geoffrey.landis]

This is cute, but the difference in tidal forces between an eclipse and any other full moon is not very much-- the moon and sun are still pretty closely lined up. If it's within a few months of an eclipse, the difference is trivial. Or, for that matter, a lunar eclipse would also be as good.
Next month's full moon will have (very slightly) higher tides-- the Earth is a month closer to perihelion.

Re:Eclipse not needed

[Will.Woodhull]

I don't think parent post is quite right.

The spring tide of an eclipse day is probably not significantly higher than any other spring tide when all other things are equal. But the existence of perigee and perihelion means that other things may not be equal.

This particular eclipse happens near perigee, as the Moon nears its closest approach to the Earth. This does make for a king tide, a high tide that is significantly higher than other spring tides. Also the Earth is coming up on perihelion in a few weeks, as parent post states, when it is at its closest approach to the Sun. That will also push the tide higher.

Additionally, Maryland is positioned relative to the line of the eclipse such that the tidal bulge will be higher at Maryland's shores than at, say New York or Georgia, that are at roughly the same longitude.

Re:Eclipse not needed

[Will.Woodhull]

But full moon eclipses are quite rare. Granted they can be devastating and in fact indicate severe climate and geologic upheavals.

Eclipse as Propoganda

[SuperKendall]

Nothing like using an unusually high tide to scare people about global warming, even though ocean levels are now predicted to rise something like 4" over 100 years (NOT four feet as the government website sadly parrots) ... the variance of a good spring tide can be more than that.

It's just really sad to see people conned in the name of science.