ECLIPSE FLIGHTs 2003
BASELINE INTERCEPT MAPS
38,000 ft above MSL

Glenn Schneider (gschneider@mac.com, gschneider@as.arizona.edu)

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23 November 2003 Total Solar Eclipse, Path of Totality @ 38,000 ft Above Mean Sea Level

Blue arrows indicate instantaneous projection of umbral shadow "ellipse" major axis, and point toward the azimuth of the Sun.


TABULAR LISTINGS FOR BASELINE FLIGHTS
(click here to jump to rest of maps)

By design, both the baseline "totality runs" for Croydon/QANTAS 22:44:00 U.T. and S&T/LanChile 23:06:02 U.T. mid-eclipse intercepts will begin 8 minutes before and terminate 3 minutes after mid-eclipse. The key elements which define these critical portions of each flight, and used in preparing the maps on this page, are given in the two tables below with temporal granularities of 30 seconds.  In both cases flight altitudes of 38,000 ft. above mean sea level are assumed, with aircraft ground speeds of 470 nM/hr with no wind.  The no-wind assumption is for planning purposes. Corrections and compensation for actual winds-aloft may be computed by EFLIGHT. Both flights are planned so as to have the Sun "straight out" the sun-side cabin windows at mid-eclipse, to provide maximum line-of-site visibility.  Alternatively, a path could have been chosen such that the the aircraft were instantaneously flying in the direction of the umbral shadow's velocity vector at mid eclipse.  This would fully optimize the duration of totality, but then the viewing angle to the Sun would be non-optimal (particularly so in the case of the S&T/LanChile flight).  Given the geometry and circumstances of this eclipse, and the chosen intercepts, in these cases the "loss" in the achievable duration of totality is inconsequential.

CROYDON / QANTAS BASELINE FLIGHT

U.T. Intercept:  22:44:00 ? Cnt  hh:mm:ss.f Alt°  P°      Cnt  hh:mm:ss.f Alt°  P°
Flight Altitude:  38000ft ? 2ND  22:42:46.5 +14.9 109.4  3RD  22:45:20.1 +15.1 289.7
Air Speed:      470.0nm/h ? LATITUDE:  -069° 51' 50.5''   LATITUDE:  -070° 10' 21.9''
Wind Speed:       0.0nm/h ? LONGITUDE: +093° 12' 58.1''   LONGITUDE: +092° 54' 46.5''
Wind Direction:      0.0° ? TOTALITY DURATION = 2m 34.7s  mid-Eclipse Heading: 198.63d
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U. Time. ===================UMBRA===============  ==============AIRCRAFT==========
HH:MM:SS UM Lon   UM Lat    Width   SunAz SunAlt   AC Lon   AC Lat    Mid*T Mid*D
22:36:00 94.9014E 65.2706S  522.8km 110.0° 13.3°   94.0283E 68.9975S  -480s -62.7nm
22:36:30 94.8944E 65.5814S  521.4km 109.8° 13.5°   93.9724E 69.0595S  -450s -58.8nm
22:37:00 94.8738E 65.8896S  520.0km 109.7° 13.6°   93.9162E 69.1215S  -420s -54.8nm
22:37:30 94.8396E 66.1955S  518.6km 109.5° 13.8°   93.8597E 69.1835S  -390s -50.9nm
22:38:00 94.7919E 66.4991S  517.2km 109.4° 13.9°   93.8029E 69.2455S  -360s -47.0nm
22:38:30 94.7304E 66.8005S  515.8km 109.3° 14.0°   93.7457E 69.3074S  -330s -43.1nm
22:39:00 94.6552E 67.0997S  514.4km 109.2° 14.1°   93.6882E 69.3693S  -300s -39.2nm
22:39:30 94.5661E 67.3970S  513.0km 109.0° 14.2°   93.6304E 69.4313S  -270s -35.3nm
22:40:00 94.4628E 67.6922S  511.7km 109.0° 14.3°   93.5723E 69.4931S  -240s -31.3nm
22:40:30 94.3452E 67.9855S  510.4km 108.9° 14.4°   93.5138E 69.5550S  -210s -27.4nm
22:41:00 94.2129E 68.2769S  509.1km 108.8° 14.5°   93.4549E 69.6169S  -180s -23.5nm
22:41:30 94.0658E 68.5664S  507.8km 108.8° 14.6°   93.3958E 69.6787S  -150s -19.6nm
22:42:00 93.9035E 68.8542S  506.6km 108.7° 14.7°   93.3362E 69.7405S  -120s -15.7nm
22:42:30 93.7257E 69.1401S  505.3km 108.7° 14.8°   93.2764E 69.8023S   -90s -11.8nm
22:43:00 93.5319E 69.4244S  504.1km 108.7° 14.8°   93.2161E 69.8640S   -60s  -7.8nm
22:43:30 93.3217E 69.7068S  503.0km 108.7° 14.9°   93.1556E 69.9258S   -30s  -3.9nm
22:44:00 93.0946E 69.9875S  501.8km 108.7° 15.0°   93.0946E 69.9876S    +0s  +0.0nm
22:44:30 92.8502E 70.2665S  500.7km 108.8° 15.0°   93.0337E 70.0492S   +30s  +3.9nm
22:45:00 92.5879E 70.5437S  499.6km 108.8° 15.1°   92.9731E 70.1110S   +60s  +7.8nm
22:45:30 92.3071E 70.8191S  498.5km 108.9° 15.1°   92.9129E 70.1727S   +90s +11.8nm
22:46:00 92.0072E 71.0927S  497.5km 109.0° 15.1°   92.8530E 70.2345S  +120s +15.7nm
22:46:30 91.6875E 71.3645S  496.5km 109.1° 15.2°   92.7935E 70.2963S  +150s +19.6nm
22:47:00 91.3473E 71.6345S  495.5km 109.2° 15.2°   92.7343E 70.3582S  +180s +23.5nm
 

SKY & TELESCOPE / LanChile BASELINE FLIGHT

U.T. Intercept:  23:06:02 ? Cnt  hh:mm:ss.f  Alt° P°      Cnt  hh:mm:ss.f  Alt°  P°
Flight Altitude:  38000ft ? 2ND  23:04:51.6 +11.8 109.6   3RD  23:07:18.6 +11.9 283.9
Air Speed:      470.0nm/h ? LATITUDE:  -078° 36' 17.6''   LATITUDE:  -078° 48' 50.7''
Wind Speed:       0.0nm/h ? LONGITUDE: +052° 22'  0.5''   LONGITUDE: +051° 05' 57.7''
Wind Direction:      0.0° ? TOTALITY DURATION = 2m 26.1s  mid-Eclipse Heading: 230.05d
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
U. Time. ===================UMBRA===============  ==============AIRCRAFT==========
HH:MM:SS UM Lon   UM Lat    Width   SunAz SunAlt   AC Lon   AC Lat    Mid*T Mid*D
22:58:02 76.4775E 76.8987S  481.9km 119.3° 14.3°   55.7230E 77.9970S  -480s -62.7nm
22:58:32 75.3431E 77.0870S  481.7km 120.2° 14.2°   55.4945E 78.0417S  -450s -58.8nm
22:59:02 74.1563E 77.2681S  481.5km 121.2° 14.1°   55.2644E 78.0862S  -420s -54.8nm
22:59:32 72.9158E 77.4416S  481.3km 122.2° 14.0°   55.0325E 78.1305S  -390s -50.9nm
23:00:02 71.6644E 77.6016S  481.2km 123.2° 13.9°   54.7990E 78.1746S  -360s -47.0nm
23:00:32 70.3150E 77.7583S  481.1km 124.3° 13.8°   54.5637E 78.2185S  -330s -43.1nm
23:01:02 68.9089E 77.9057S  481.1km 125.5° 13.6°   54.3267E 78.2623S  -300s -39.2nm
23:01:32 67.4458E 78.0429S  481.1km 126.8° 13.5°   54.0879E 78.3058S  -270s -35.3nm
23:02:02 65.9257E 78.1692S  481.2km 128.1° 13.3°   53.8474E 78.3492S  -240s -31.3nm
23:02:32 64.3487E 78.2839S  481.3km 129.4° 13.2°   53.6051E 78.3923S  -210s -27.4nm
23:03:02 62.7158E 78.3862S  481.5km 130.8° 13.0°   53.3611E 78.4352S  -180s -23.5nm
23:03:32 61.0283E 78.4752S  481.7km 132.3° 12.8°   53.1152E 78.4780S  -150s -19.6nm
23:04:02 59.2880E 78.5500S  481.9km 133.8° 12.6°   52.8676E 78.5205S  -120s -15.7nm
23:04:32 57.4974E 78.6097S  482.2km 135.4° 12.5°   52.6181E 78.5628S   -90s -11.8nm
23:05:02 55.6598E 78.6534S  482.5km 137.0° 12.3°   52.3668E 78.6049S   -60s  -7.8nm
23:05:32 53.7787E 78.6799S  482.9km 138.7° 12.0°   52.1137E 78.6468S   -30s  -3.9nm
23:06:02 51.8587E 78.6884S  483.3km 140.4° 11.8°   51.8587E 78.6885S    +0s  +0.0nm
23:06:32 49.9048E 78.6778S  483.8km 142.1° 11.6°   51.6038E 78.7301S   +30s  +3.9nm
23:07:02 47.9226E 78.6468S  484.4km 143.9° 11.3°   51.3506E 78.7720S   +60s  +7.8nm
23:07:32 45.9181E 78.5945S  485.0km 145.7° 11.1°   51.0994E 78.8141S   +90s +11.8nm
23:08:02 43.8979E 78.5195S  485.6km 147.5° 10.8°   50.8499E 78.8564S  +120s +15.7nm
23:08:32 41.8690E 78.4207S  486.3km 149.3° 10.5°   50.6022E 78.8989S  +150s +19.6nm
23:09:02 39.8383E 78.2965S  487.1km 151.1° 10.2°   50.3564E 78.9416S  +180s +23.5nm


MAPS SHOWING CROYDON/QANTAS and SKY & TELESCOPE/LAN CHILE FLIGHTS

Croydon/QANTAS (22:44:00UT, left) and Sky & Telescope /LanChile (23:06:02UT, right)

Baseline approach, intercept & totality, and departure tracks for the eclipse flights planned for Crydon/QANTAS (B747-400; left) and S&T/LanChile (A340; right).

Croydon/QANTAS (22:44:00UT, left) and Sky & Telescope /LanChile (23:06:02UT, right)

Crydon/QANTAS (B747-400; left) and S&T/LanChile (A340; right) eclipse intercepts in more detail.


MAPS SHOWING CROYDON/QANTAS FLIGHT

CROYDON / QANTAS Map for 22:44:00 UT Intercept

CROYDON / QANTAS Map for 22:44:00 UT Intercept in More Detail


MAPS SHOWING SKY & TELESCOPE/LAN CHILE FLIGHT

Sky & Telescope / LanChile Map for 23:06:02 UT Intercept

 
 

Sky & Telescope / LanChile Map for 23:06:02 UT Intercept in More Detail