Challenge #82: Are You in the Path of the Solar Eclipse?

The solution to last week's Challenge can be found here!

You'll want to get this week's Challenge done quickly, especially if you want to find out if your current location is in the path of today's total solar eclipse!

The given input file contains data on the path of the moon's shadow of the solar eclipse that will pass over North America on Aug. 21, 2017 (source: https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEpath/SEpath2001/SE2017Aug21Tpath.html). To experience totality, or the darkness of the moon's shadow, you need to be within the boundaries of the eclipse's path. Use the data below to plot the Northern, Central and Southern limits of the of the eclipse's path. Then, determine if your current location is within the path of totality. If not, what is the minimum distance from your location to being within the boundaries of totality?

*HINT: Convert geographic degrees and minutes into decimal degrees using the formula DEGREES + (MINUTES/60)

**HINT: Longitudes in North America are negative values.

***HINT: It's helpful to limit the path of totality to the boundaries of North America (optional). Download a shapefile of the United States here: https://www.census.gov/geo/maps-data/data/cbf/cbf_nation.html.

Happy Eclipse Day!

challenge_82_start_file.yxmd

challenge_82_solution.yxzp

Developer

Parse

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Spatial Analysis

Preparation

Advanced

Intermediate

Data Preparation

Spatial

Accepted answers

All comments

NicoleJohnson

My solution! And I even had time to run outside and check out the eclipse for myself! (With the proper approved safety eyeglasses of course, since as shown in my solution, I'm about 178 miles away from being able to see the full totality)... This was a fun one, @ChristineB!! Happy Eclipse Day, everyone!

Spoiler

I chose to make show the path of totality as a convex hull once the points were determined to smooth it out a bit (otherwise, it looked like the eclipse was climbing stairs across the US...). Note that originally I did it without the degree+minutes conversion, since it seemed to work when the points were in the format ## ##.#N and ### ##.#W... but converted to decimals format anyway, just to make it cleaner and to match up with the format of my location.

Cheers,

challenge_82_NicoleJohnson.yxmd

philipmannering

Great problem to get better acquainted with some of the spatial tools.

Here's my solution.

Spoiler

1. Parse out the longitude and latitude for the eclipse northern and southern boundaries.
2. Set the correct order of those coordinates to create the polygon.
3. Create said polygon.
4. Measure the distance.

My workflow

I used Montreal and Las Vegas to give more interesting results.

challenge_82 - Distance from Total Solar Eclipse.yxmd

estherb47

Mapped this out for my siblings too None of us were anywhere near the totality, but we all watched through safety glasses! Still such a cool event, and my children and I look forward to the next one.

My approach wasn't a novel one. Prepared the data, first parsing it

Spoiler

challenge_82_EHB_solution.yxmd

patrick_digan

Fun challenge!

Spoiler

I parsed the data and created the points. Then I used poly build and poly split to get all the points on the line. Then I used find nearest to find the closest point to my geocoded address. I added some interface tools so anybody could type their address in to get their distance from the line of totality back.

challenge_82_start_file.yxwz

LordNeilLord

This was a fun one, I spent far too long messing about with Transpose & Crosstab to get the data in a suitable order to build the PolyLine then I remember that you can build these things using the formula tool! MUST NOT FORGET THE FORMULA TOOL!

Spoiler

challenge_82_LNL.yxmd

Natasha

I was avoiding this challenge for a while, but once I read up on lat/long and degrees everything fall into place.

Spoiler

challenge_82_Natasha.yxmd

SeanAdams

:-) so, it turns out that we were in yellowstone at the time, so we were directly in the path. But I followed the instructions to the letter, and plotted the path vs. my current location. No intersection at all (8816 Miles to closest point).

challenge_82_SeanSolution.yxmd

LandonG

Solution attached.

challenge_82_start_file.yxmd

ggruccio

Fun exercise! Would have had to travel several hours to be in the path - but I hear it would have been worth it!

challenge_82_gg_finish.yxmd

samN

spatial, always a struggle for me.

Solution attached.

This one took me a while but I'm pleased with the outcome. Rather than simply plotting the lines I decided to use the northern and southern limits to create a polygon representing the area of totality.

If the user selects a point within the totality, a distance of 0 is returned, and if they select a point outside of the totality the smallest distance to the area of totality is returned.

I decided not to limit the region to the US mainland as that resulted in some coastal regions not being properly covered by the polygon. Another option would have been to keep the first point outside the US mainland but that seemed like overkill.

Here's my solution:

Spoiler

Result for point outside the totality:

Screen Shot 2018-01-03 at 14.02.36.png

Result for point inside the totality:

Screen Shot 2018-01-03 at 13.59.07.png

challenge_82_solution_JL.yxzp

derekbelyea

Spoiler

challenge_82_JDB_AnalytixStudio.yxmd

JosephSerpis

Challenge Completed

Challenge_82_Joe_Serpis.yxmd

CHarrison

As a Brit, it didn't make much sese to calculate my distance from the solar eclipse, so I chose to calculate the distance from the current hometown of Isaac Brock, my favourite American musician, who coincidentally lives only 21 miles from the path!

Challenge 82.yxzp

dsmdavid

This was fun.

Even if I was on the wrong side of the ocean...

.Where I was vs Where Should I've been

Spoiler

Solar Eclipse Polygon

solved#82.yxzp

neilgallen

I was only 41 miles away from the total path, but things where we were was still very impressive.

challenge_82_NGA.yxmd

danilang

No glasses for me. Just a normal sunny day

Spoiler

Dan

challenge_82_solution_DL.yxmd

kat

Decided to go with a little app.

Spoiler

Challenge #82.yxwz

JoBen

Cheers!

challenge_82_Joben_Solution.yxmd

Laurap1228

Sadly, I am nowhere near the path

challenge_82_LP.yxzp

yajing_wang

This is hard for me....Do not understand how to used the raw data to create a proper map, follow the solution to build it

challenge_82_hard.yxmd

jssandom

I was 3192 miles from the northern limit at my home in London

challenge_82_solution_JSS.yxmd

kelly_gilbert

I overcomplicated this one a bit, but it was great practice with spatial tools!

Spoiler

Workflow (I created an app that allows the user to select a series of points on a map input):

Output #1 (map of path):

Output #2 (is the location in the path of totality, and if not, what is the distance and closest limit?)
output 2.PNG

challenge_82_solution_klg.yxzp

pasccout

Here is my solution

challenge_82_my_solution.yxzp

JoshuaGostick

The data was a bit intimidating at first but eventually got it

Spoiler

challenge_82_JG.yxmd

justynam

Good exercise to practice Spatial tools :-)

challenge_82_solution_JM.yxmd

ipeng

My solution. Too bad I don't have the map database...

IP_challenge_82_start_file.yxmd

RichoBsJ

Hi! Here my solution

I've plotted the boundaries, and calcutaed the distance from those to my secret position

challenge_82_richobsj.yxmd

OldDogNewTricks

My solution attached...interesting.

challenge_82_completed.yxmd

princejindal

Great challenge and fun with the maps!

cplewis90

When the eclipse happened, I was much close than I am now (Arkansas vs Texas).

Spoiler

I struggled a bit with the conversion as I was missing the fact that the longitude's needed to be multiplied by -1. Had to look up the conversion online.
Challenge 82.PNG

challenge_82_CL.yxmd

DawnDuong

I initially got really weird distance values - then it turned out I put the "Line" where it should be a point or centroid. Strange that the workflow still ran - something new for me.

Spoiler

challenge_82_solution_DD.yxmd

Kenda

Spoiler

challenge_82_start_file.yxmd

TonyA

My solution is attached.

Spoiler

Similar to a few other people I created a polygon in addition to the lines to be able to use spatial tools to determine if a point was in the path of the eclipse. I built the lines and points first and then intersected the objects with US boundaries to make sure I caught the coastal areas. An alternative to building the polygon might have been to measure the distance to all three lines. If the distance to the center line was smaller than the distance to the north line or the distance to the south line then you would be in the region of totality.

challenge_82_TonyA.yxmd

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