Since ancient times, solar eclipses have generated awe as the Moon slowly moves across and blocks the Sun as viewed from the Earth’s surface. This interest in solar eclipses continues today not only among professional astronomers but the general public as well with people willing to travel great distances to view these spectacular events. Unfortunately, Mother Nature threw us a curveball on December 4, 2021 with the last solar eclipse of the year taking place over Antarctica – the most isolated and least populated continent on our planet. This event was the compliment of the annular solar eclipse which took place six months earlier on June 10 over the Arctic (see “EPIC View of the June 10, 2021 Solar Eclipse”).
This map shows the eclipse path of the December 4, 2021 total solar eclipse as well as the visibility of of the partial eclipse. Click to image to enlarge. (NASA/GSFC/Fred Espenak)
While there were some hearty souls stationed in Antarctica as well as isolated places such as the South Orkney Islands in the Southern Ocean who might have glimpsed the eclipse, very few others had the opportunity to do so – certainly far fewer than the June 10 annular eclipse which occurred closer to the Northern Hemisphere’s population centers. Notable exceptions would have been a handful of eclipse enthusiasts who were scheduled to fly chartered flights out of Puntas Arenas, Chile on the southern tip of South America to view the eclipse from the air or (if the weather cooperated) during a brief stop on the Antarctic continent itself near Union Glacier.
The only other potential sightings of the December 4 eclipse possible were from the constellations of Earth orbiting satellites. Unfortunately, the extreme southern latitude of the path of totality made it impossible to get a good view from weather satellites stationed in geosynchronous orbit above the equator. And with the shadow of the Moon only in contact with the Earth from 07:00 to just after 08:00 UTC, it would only be by chance that satellites in lower altitude orbits with periods of an hour and a half would be in the right place at the right time to view the shadow.
Diagram showing the major systems on NASA’s DSCOVR (Deep Space Climate Observatory) satellite. Click on image to enlarge (NASA/GSFC)
By happenstance, NASA’s DSCOVR (Deep Space Climate Observatory) spacecraft caught a single image of the event. Located 1.55 million kilometers from the Earth at the Sun-Earth L1 Lagrange point, DSCOVR had a unique vantage point to observe the sunlit hemisphere of the Earth. With the spacecraft located 3.09° off the Earth-Sun line and with the Earth’s South Pole tipped about 23° towards the Sun as our home planet nears the Southern Hemisphere’s summer solstice, DSCOVR was able to glimpse the Moon’s shadow as it raced across the edge of the Earth’s disk.
Here is an image of the Moon’s shadow over West Antarctica taken on December 4, 2021 at 07:58 UTC by EPIC on NASA’s DSCOVR spacecraft from a range of 1.55 million kilometers. Click on image to enlarge. (NASA/GSFC)
DSCOVR carries the Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC) which captures multispectral images of the sunlit disk of the Earth. These data are used to create color views once every couple of hours as the Earth rotates far below. Luckily for us, EPIC caught a single view of the Moon’s shadow over West Antarctica at 07:58:03 UTC just minutes before it lost contact with the surface of the Earth. With only a pair of partial solar eclipses predicted for 2022, we will have to wait until April 20, 2023 to catch a view of the next total eclipse of the Sun.
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Related Reading
“EPIC View of the June 10, 2021 Solar Eclipse”, Drew Ex Machina, June 13, 2021 [Post]
“GOES Video of Solar Eclipse – August 21, 2017”, Drew Ex Machina, August 21, 2017 [Post]