This year's total solar eclipse expedition was the most successful in history for Professor Druckmüller's team

Professor Miloslav Druckmüller from the Department of Mathematics at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, BUT used a total of 129 images by to create a picture of the solar corona during this year's total solar eclipse. It happened on July 2 over South America. The image depicts the solar corona during a period of low solar activity. Thanks to new technology and new computer systems, the team was able to get much more and much better data than in previous expeditions. This year's 11th expedition was the most successful in history. The perfect weather contributed to it to a great extent.

This year's observation was exceptional not only in terms of the amount of the data obtained (the team saved about 3 TB), but also in the number of devices used. A total of 41 different devices were deployed at four observation sites in Chile and Argentina, most of them were new. “The expedition had only 120 to 140 seconds to research the Sun - just as long as a total solar eclipse over Chile and Argentina took. The focus of the research, as in the last ten years, was the research of iron, nickel and argon ions in the solar corona. This research was made possible by a unique set of devices, which is the only one in the world and thanks to the dedication of my colleague Pavel Štarha, this year's eclipse has been greatly improved, both in terms of hardware and software,” Miloslav Druckmüller said.

3D printing technology has also helped to improve the research team at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering. “Instead of using traditional machining methods, I designed some parts of the construction and parts of the devices in a CAD system, printed them out and then folded the parts together with aluminum components into a functional unit. The development took me a whole year when I worked with various prototypes and tested their functionality,” Pavel Štarha added.

The resulting image of the solar corona | Autor: Miloslav Druckmüller, Peter Aniol


There were no problems before and during the eclipse and the sharp tests of the new chilled cameras, the polarized light sensing mechanics and the newly developed control software were successful for the expedition. The result is 3 TB of data that was retrieved. "A large amount of data is gradually producing images of the solar corona showing the complex structure of the magnetic field of the sun, the temperature distribution in the corona and providing other valuable information about the sun," Miloslav Druckmüller explained. Mathematics and computers play a crucial role here. This is primarily the work of Miloslav Druckmüller, who has been dealing with numerical methods of digital image analysis for more than 20 years and among other things, teaches these methods to students of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, BUT. “These are not photographs in the classical sense. The image of the solar corona from this year's eclipse was created by complex mathematical processing of 129 images with exposures of 0.001 to 1.024 s,” Professor Druckmüller said.

The equipment weighing approximately 2 tons travelled to South America

The eleventh expedition to a solar eclipse was funded by the University of Hawaii, which also supplied some equipment. Even during the expedition itself, the mathematicians from Brno cooperate very closely with the representatives of the Institute for Astronomy from the University of Hawaii. The German enthusiast and renowned optician Peter Aniol also supported the expedition with finance and top-level equipment. In preparation for this year's expedition, transportation was one of the most challenging parts. The team sent the equipment weighing approximately two tons to South America.

Brno mathematicians and their American colleagues observed the phenomenon in four places - the main observation site was located in the city of Rodeo in Argentina, the other was in Chile at the Cerro Tololo Observatory, the Mamalluca Observatory and the deserted top of the mountain near the village of Tres Cruses. Mamalluca's observation site was unplanned. The researchers had to move to them because of bad weather, which made it impossible to travel to the originally planned observation site in Mascasino, Argentina.

The apparatus had to be powered from the car battery | Autor: FME BUT


2020: Back to South America

Another total solar eclipse will happen again in Chile and Argentina at the end of next year, this time about a thousand kilometres to the south. “The preparations for this expedition have already stsrted. Part of the equipment that will not be upgraded has remained in Santiago, Chile, which will save Hawaii University considerable money. The team from the Institute of Mathematics will not be missing again,” Miloslav Druckmüller said.

Although every expedition is accompanied by many months of preparation and great stress, FMI mathematicians agree that the eclipse itself is worthwhile, as it allows us to gather a lot of information about the Sun that cannot yet be obtained otherwise, even with space probes.

The documentary Helios was written about Professor Druckmüller

Professor Druckmüller's work also attracted Czech filmmakers who began shooting a documentary about him two years ago called Helios. The premiere is planned for the next year.

Jana Hoderová prepares technique for the solar eclipse | Autor: FME BUT


Total Solar Eclipse 2019

The expedition leader: Shadia Rifai Habbal (Institute of Astronomy, University of Hawaii)
Members of the expedition were from the Institute of Mathematics FME BUT: Jana Hoderová, Pavel Štarha.
Mathematical processing of the resulting images: Miloslav Druckmüller, Institute of Mathematics, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, BUT.
Solar eclipses have played a vital role in the research of the Sun over the past 150 years. However, their potential became gradually depleted in the 1990s. The baton of research was passed to spacecraft. The fact that this “golden era” of observations of the solar eclipse has not yet ended is mostly due to the team of mathematicians at the FME BUT led by Professor Druckmüller in cooperation with the Institute for Astronomy University of Hawaii. The possibilities of improving the equipment are almost exhausted, but this is not the case in mathematics and computing. The research that this team is currently doing is still not and probably will not be feasible from outer space for some time.
Published
Link https://www.vut.cz/en/but/media/f19527/d193155

Responsibility: Mgr. Kamila Šmídková