The Citizen CATE (Continental-America Telescope Eclipse) Experiment to Observe the 2017 Great American Eclipse

本提案请求支持公民中美洲望远镜日食（CATE）实验。Citizen CATE是一个观测日全食的项目，将于2017年8月21日从分布在全食路径上的60个地点观测整个美国的日全食。日全食穿越美国是相对罕见的事件；上一次日全食从大西洋到太平洋横跨美国大陆是在1918年6月18日。虽然日全食在任何一个特定地点只持续几分钟，但Citizen CATE将有60个相同的地点，由训练有素的公民科学志愿者负责。实验的目标是产生一个持续90分钟的日冕内部的连续白光电影。由此产生的数据集将为进一步研究日冕的动态提供科学资源，并为培训未来的研究人员和向公众宣传提供教育资源。参与Citizen CATE实验的学术合作伙伴来自地理和人口统计学上不同的机构。这些不同的合作伙伴将反过来接触到更广泛的受众，从小型农村活动到数千人观看的国际广播。像Citizen CATE项目提出的那样，对太阳内部日冕的连续观测从未进行过。这样一个数据集将处理的一些太阳研究领域包括：极地羽流动力学的研究、日冕势场的测量、日冕烟圈与瑞利-泰勒不稳定性之间关系的研究、寻找活动区域环路振荡以及寻找日冕流入的特征。日食之后，CATE数据将被传输回PIs机构的中心位置，位于科罗拉多州博尔德的国家太阳天文台，进行进一步的处理和分发给科学界进行进一步的研究。在日食当天，公民CATE结果的快速浏览电影也将向公众提供。CATE数据将为研究太阳内部日冕打开一个新的窗口，并将为未来的日食研究提供有价值的背景数据。由于志愿者用于日食观测的设备将留在各机构，该项目将对STEM教育产生持久的影响，远远超过2017年的事件。来自全国各地的学生将从事太阳物理和天文学的研究和教育。因此，该项目将有助于激励和培训下一代天文学家。

This proposal requests support for the Citizen Central-America Telescope Eclipse (CATE) experiment. Citizen CATE is a program to observe the total solar eclipse that will track across the United States on August 21, 2017 from 60 locations distributed along the path of totality. Total solar eclipse crossings of the United States are relatively rare events; the last time a total solar eclipse crossed the Continental U.S. from the Atlantic to the Pacific was June 18, 1918. While a total solar eclipse lasts only a few minutes at any one particular location, Citizen CATE will have 60 identical sites manned by trained citizen-science volunteers. The goal of the experiment is to produce a continuous white-light movie of the inner solar corona for a period of about 90 minutes. The resulting data set will provide a scientific resource to further study the dynamics of the corona, and an educational resource for the training of future researchers and for outreach to the general public. The academic partners that will be involved in the Citizen CATE experiment are drawn from a geographically and demographically diverse set of institutions. These diverse partners will, in turn, reach out to an even broader audience from small rural events to international broadcasts viewed by thousands. Never before have the continuous observations of the inner solar corona like those proposed by the Citizen CATE project been performed. Some of the areas of solar research that will be addressed by such a data set include: the study of polar plume dynamics, measurement of the coronal potential field, examination of the relationship between coronal smoke rings and Rayleigh-Taylor instabilities, the search for active-region loop oscillations, and the search for the signatures of coronal inflows. After the eclipse, the CATE data will be transmitted back to a central location at the PIs institution, the National Solar Observatory in Boulder, CO, for further processing and distribution to the scientific community for further research. A quick-look movie of the Citizen CATE results will also be made available to the general public on the day of the eclipse. The CATE data will open a new window on the inner solar corona and will provide valuable context data for future eclipse studies. Because the equipment that is used by the volunteers for the eclipse observations will stay with the institutions, the project will have lasting effects on STEM education well beyond the 2017 event. Students from across the country will be engaged in solar physics and astronomy research and education. The project will, thus, serve to inspire and train the next generation of astronomers.