Observational Validation of Predictions for the 2020 Eclipse Corona

Using observations from Argentina during the eclipse of 14 December 2020, compare our observations to a prediction simulation of the eclipse corona, developed by Predictive Science Inc. This 2020 prediction was based on a thermodynamic magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) model of the corona with a new two-temperature formulation and updates to a wave-turbulence-driven (WTD) heating and acceleration model. A comparison of the observed and predicted white light morphology is used to assess and inform the WTD model parametrization. Using observations by AM from Piedra del Águila, Argentina, we provided a quick composite by Williams College for comparison with the Predictive Science prediction for a NASA press release the following day (https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2020/scientists-use-nasa-data-predict-appearance-corona-dec-14-total-solar-eclipse) and a later composite by RV for a NASA press release about a newly discovered sungrazer comet that soon followed (https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2020/recently-discovered-comet-seen-during-2020-total-solar-eclipse-SOHO). See also Pasachoff, Jay M., 2021, Preliminary Report on the 14 December 2020 Total Solar Eclipse Observations, for International Astronomical Union Symposium 367: Education and Heritage in the Era of Big Data in Astronomy, submitted (Cambridge University Press, 2021); Pasachoff, Jay M., 2021, The 2020 Total Eclipse, Astronomy Magazine, April, pp. 47-51. Acknowledgments: JMP’s research for this eclipse was sponsored by grant AGS-1903500 of the Solar Terrestrial Program, Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences Division of the NSF. PSI was supported by AFOSR, NASA, and NSF. VR and RV have been supported by the project VEGA ~ 2/0048/20 (Slovak Academy of Sciences). We thank Lina Tran and Joy Ng of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center for their work on the prediction/verification and eclipse-comet press releases.