The Strange Sensory Theater of a Total Solar Eclipse

The Moon’s shadow crosses Earth faster than sound in many locations, cooling a moving corridor of atmosphere as it travels. Such a rapid disturbance can produce gravity waves, not to be confused with gravitational waves from distant cosmic events. Atmospheric gravity waves arise when displaced air is pulled back toward equilibrium by buoyancy and gravity, creating oscillations that can travel through the atmosphere and ionosphere. Instruments have detected eclipse-related pressure changes and wave patterns high above Earth, including signals associated with the 2017 event.