Want to get involved? We're always looking for ideas and content for Weekly Challenges.
SUBMIT YOUR IDEAThe 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.
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!
Cheers,
NJ
Great problem to get better acquainted with some of the spatial tools.
Here's my solution.
Christine's solution has been posted!
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
Fun challenge!
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!
I was avoiding this challenge for a while, but once I read up on lat/long and degrees everything fall into place.