On Thursday, a team of 12 students and a professor from the University of North Dakota arrived at Pueblo Community College Southwest’s campus to conduct research on the solar eclipse, which took place on Friday and Saturday.
Melissa Watters, STEM Academic and Career Expert at PCC, said Jared Marquis contacted them sometime in March or April asking if they would be able to spend some time at PCC during the solar eclipse, as Southwest Colorado was on the eclipse’s path.
While looking at a map of the eclipse’s course, the professor and his students found PCC and deemed it the place to watch the eclipse and launch their research balloons to gather data during the eclipse.
It was the first time PCC students had the opportunity to interact with students from the University of North Dakota’s atmospheric science study majors, and Watters’ class of engineering students from Cortez, Dolores and Mancos had the chance to watch as balloons were launched and data collected, even taking part in the research on Friday.
The students’ atmospheric research included measuring humidity, temperature, dew point and gravity waves in the atmosphere.
“I had my students go out and talk to them about their research, why they were doing it and why they were interested in studying those kinds of things,” Watters said.
The balloons, which were equipped with GPS trackers and sensors, flew to various areas around Montezuma County, some ending up landing close to Farmington. Because the data can be collected without retrieving the balloons, Watters said the balloons are biodegradable and the sensors have notes attached, should anyone find them once they land.
“They were getting up pretty high in the atmosphere,” she said.
Watters said the students from North Dakota were very nice and eager to answer questions and explain their research. They even had the opportunity to hear about the cultural aspects of the eclipse for Native Americans.
“The students were very interested in what they were doing,” Watters said.
Students began launching balloons on Friday morning and went through the night and into midmorning Saturday, taking turns throughout the night.
After the balloons were launched, the teams could view the data being updated in real-time on their computers.
People from the community and traveling into the area for the eclipse also stopped by to view the eclipse at PCC. The college had extra eclipse glasses and invited anyone who needed a place to stop and watch.
Watters said the line into Mesa Verde was long, and many didn’t make it into the park to watch the eclipse, coming to PCC instead.
“There were eclipse parties everywhere, but this one had a unique twist because of the research going on,” Watters said.
