(Newswire.net — March 20, 2015) — The so called ‘Supermoon’ because it appears on the closest orbit to the moon, will cast a long shadow totally blocking the Sunlight, when in position between the Earth and the Sun. Astronomers say this event occurs once or twice in a lifetime. According to astronomers, this type of solar eclipse will occur only three more times this century.
The eclipse started over Greenland Friday early morning, then moved across the northern hemisphere towards Scandinavia and Scotland where the occlusion was around 95 percent. The most beautiful visual experience was reserved for the residents of northern Norway and the Faroe Islands where the occlusion of the Sun reached 100 percent.
Hundreds of astronomers gathered on Svalbard, the northern part of Norway where there was a total eclipse. The scientists are particularly interested in the phenomenon because it will give them a rare opportunity to observe the sun’s corona, the outer rim that is twice as hot as the sun’s surface.
While most of the northern hemisphere residents enjoyed the phenomenon, solar power plant managers worried the eclipse could damage the system. Around 50 percent of power was lost throughout the morning hours of March 20th at the UK solar power factories, however, other solar plants in EU suffered a bit of the shock.
The Financial times predicted a huge drop then a fast recovery that might damage the whole power grid.
“Within 30 minutes the solar power production would decrease from 17.5 gigawatts to 6.2GW and then increase again up to 24.6GW. This means that within 30 minutes the system will have to adapt to a load change of -10GW to +15GW,” said Patrick Graichen, executive director of the Berlin-based think-tank on renewable energy Agora Energiewende, as cited by the Financial Times.
The power plant managers, took all precautions to ensure the safety of the power grid. So far, there have been no reports that any problems occurred amid the loss of sunlight over the EU.
According to the NASA Solar Eclipse webpage, the next eclipse will occur on a September 13th, which will be partial. The next total sun eclipse will occur a year from now, March 9th, which will be best observed from Sumatra, Borneo, Sulawesi and the Pacific.