Eclipse Soundscapes Project Overview: Scientific Rationale, Historical Context, and Research Design

This video provides an overview of the scientific rationale, historical foundations, and research design of the Eclipse Soundscapes (ES) project, a NASA Science Activation–funded participatory science initiative studying how solar eclipses affect life on Earth.

The video explains the project’s central research question: how rapid changes in light during solar eclipses influence animal behavior and environmental soundscapes. It situates Eclipse Soundscapes within the historical context of eclipse research, including the 1935 participatory study by Wheeler et al., which collected 498 public observations during the August 31, 1932 solar eclipse and documented reported changes in animal and insect behavior.

The video also references more recent eclipse soundscape research efforts, including acoustic monitoring conducted by the National Park Service during the 2017 total solar eclipse, which informed the methodological approach of the ES project.

Eclipse Soundscapes revisited and expanded these earlier efforts using modern recording technology and structured public participation. Volunteer scientists were invited to collect qualitative observations and instrumental audio recordings during:

• The October 14, 2023 annular solar eclipse
• The April 8, 2024 total solar eclipse

This overview video was originally produced in 2023 to introduce the public to the science behind the project and to invite participation. It explains the role of both multisensory human observations and distributed AudioMoth soundscape recordings in building a geographically diverse dataset.

The video incorporates descriptive text, imagery, and closed captions to support multi-modal engagement. Viewers can listen, watch, or read the content, reflecting the project’s commitment to inclusive science communication and accessible learning design.

This video is preserved in Zenodo as part of the official Eclipse Soundscapes documentation to provide contextual background for the project’s datasets, training materials, and published research outputs.

General Eclipse Soundscapes Project Information

The Eclipse Soundscapes Project (ES) was a NASA Volunteer Science project funded by NASA Science Activation that studied how solar eclipses affect life on Earth during the October 14, 2023 annular solar eclipse and the April 8, 2024 total solar eclipse. ES revisited a historic study from the early 1900s showing that animals respond to eclipses and used modern technology and public participation to expand that research.

Eclipse Soundscapes was an enterprise of ARISA Lab, LLC and was supported by NASA award No. 80NSSC21M0008. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in materials from the project were those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.