By Mounis Hawass
Monday, October 23, 2023 at 11:00 p.m
It was destined to happen Eclipse The Sun’s next totality is in April next year, and while it may be scary if you’ve never experienced it, what happens to nature can be strange, and below we track the strangest things that happen during a solar eclipse.
Animal behavior
Most animals organize their lives based on the light and dark cycles of the sun and moon, so when a solar eclipse occurs, it disrupts many species, as disoriented animals that are active during the day return to sleep at night. Thinking the animals are asleep, she goes back to work.
For example, you can see nocturnal bats flying during the day, fooled by the period of darkness, and some species of spiders begin to remove their webs during an eclipse, as they usually do at the end of the day, and once the eclipse is over, they begin to rebuild them again.
Hippos in Zimbabwe can be seen leaving their rivers during the eclipse and heading for their nocturnal feeding grounds on dry land, while fish and birds that are normally active during the day move to their resting places at night.
The same can be said for humans, with some reporting feeling tired or lethargic during a solar eclipse, a phenomenon largely caused by the sudden change in natural light.
A changing wind
A solar eclipse can cause significant changes in the atmosphere, manifested as changes in wind, temperature, cloud cover, and humidity. Helm Clayton, one of the first scientists to study the effects of eclipses on weather, suggested when the moon’s shadow would fall. Earth causes cold air to rise.
Low temperature
The amount of temperature change, of course, depends on the location, time of year, and type of eclipse, with most locations experiencing a temperature drop of 5 to 10 degrees F (2.8 to 5.6 degrees C) during a total eclipse.
When the temperature drops briefly during an eclipse, the air moves closer to what is called the dew point. This makes the air appear a little more humid. At the same time, a significant drop in temperature also changes the cloud cover.
Annoying radio waves
A solar eclipse can block radio waves, and the ionosphere — located at the top of Earth’s atmosphere — receives less sunlight and is therefore cooler during a total solar eclipse.
This drop in temperature reduces some of the molecules there, causing pinholes.
This results in the inability of long-range radio waves to bounce off the ionosphere in these regions and transmit their signals to Earth.
Scary shadows
As the eclipse progresses, the shadows are dotted with small, bright crescents. These shadows occur during partial and total eclipses.
Microorganisms that shrink
Even microbes may be susceptible to the strange sensations of a solar eclipse, according to a 2011 study. Indian scientists looked at bacteria growing in lab petri dishes during a total eclipse and found that the microbes shrunk and took on different shapes during the peak of the eclipse. .
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