What are shadow bands?
Shadow bands are among the most ephemeral phenomena seen by observers during the few minutes before a total solar eclipse. They appear as a multitude of faint bands that can be seen by placing a white sheet of paper several feet square on the ground. They look like ripples of sunshine at the bottom of a pool, and their visibility varies from eclipse to eclipse. 19th-century observers interpreted them as interference fringes caused by some kind of diffraction phenomenon. The Sun, however, is hardly a ‘point source’ and the patterns are more random than you might expect from diffraction effects. The simplest explanation is that they arise from atmospheric turbulence. When light rays pass through eddies in the atmosphere, they get refracted. Unresolved distant sources simply ‘”twinkle,” but for nearby large objects, the incoming light can get split into interfering bundles that recombine on the ground to give mottled patterns of light and dark bands, or portions of bands. Near totality, t
These are among the most ephemeral phenomena that observers see during the few minutes before and after a total solar eclipse. They appear as a multitude of faint rapidly moving bands that can be seen by placing a white sheet of paper several feet square on the ground. They look like ripples of sunshine at the bottom of a swimming pool, and their visibility varies from eclipse to eclipse. 19th century observers interpreted them as interference fringes caused by some kind of diffraction phenomenon. The Sun, however, is hardly a “point source” and the patterns are more random than you might expect from diffraction effects. The simplest explanation is that they arise from atmospheric turbulence. When light rays pass through eddies in the atmosphere, they are refracted. Unresolved distant sources simply “twinkle,” but for nearby large objects, the incoming light can be split into interfering bundles that recombine on the ground to give mottled patterns of light and dark bands, or portions
These are among the most ephemeral phenomena that observers see during the few minutes before a total solar eclipse. They appear as a multitude of faint bands that can be seen by placing a white sheet of paper several feet square on the ground.They look like ripples of sunshine at the bottom of a pool, and their visibility varies from eclipse to eclipse. 19th century observers interpreted them as interference fringes caused by some kind of diffraction phenomenon. The Sun, however, is hardly a ‘point source’ and the patterns are more random than you might expect from diffraction effects. The simplist explanation is that they arise from atmospheric turbulence. When light rays pass through eddies in the atmosphere, they get refracted. Unresolved distant sources simply ‘twinkle’, but for nearby large objects, the incoming light can get split into interfering bundles that recombine on the ground to give mottled patterns of light and dark bands, or portions of bands. Near totality, the image
