More than 31 million people were in the path of the total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024, as it passed over Mexico, the United States, and Canada. Meanwhile, the GOES-East satellite was in geostationary orbit 22,236 miles above Earth’s equator. Images captured by the GOES-East Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) instrument were used to create a GeoColor imagery animation of the event.
Press the blue "Play" button in the lower left corner of the image to see the passage of the eclipse from 12:50 p.m. to 3:40 p.m., EDT (16:50 to 19:40 UTC/Zulu Time). Click on the icon in the upper right corner to open this view in Worldview (where you can export the animation as an animated GIF).
A total solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between the Sun and Earth, completely blocking the face of the Sun. The darkened portions of the GeoColor reflectance imagery occur as the satellite no longer receives reflected sunlight from Earth's surface. During the eclipse, NASA launched sounding rockets to assess atmospheric changes while airborne instruments collected additional data. Through Earthdata Search, you can access more than 50 data collections related to Sun-Earth Interactions.
Mark your calendars now—the next total solar eclipse takes place August 12, 2026, and will pass over Greenland, Iceland, Spain, Russia, and a small area of Portugal (a partial eclipse will be visible in Europe, Africa, North America, and over the Atlantic Ocean, Arctic Ocean, and Pacific Ocean).
Visit Worldview to visualize near real-time imagery from NASA's EOSDIS; find more imagery in our Worldview weekly image archive.