What the 2017 Great American Eclipse taught us about
effective science communication (126)
Tony Rice, NASA Jet
Propulsion Laboratory, Cary, North Carolina
Abstract:
According to NASA, the 2017
total solar eclipse which swept from Oregon to South Carolina shattered records
for online viewers and was the most watched eclipse in history with about half
the US population looking up according to a CNN poll.
It was also a rare
opportunity for scientific engagement with the public. Following years of
preparations invested to set appropriate expectationsand ensure safety, how did
we do?
We'll review lessons learned
from the eclipse that can help us improve communications about temporal and
regional events safety in general. We will celebrate what went right to build
on it in 2023 and 2024. More importantly, we'll identify what went wrong in
communicating this well-anticipated event with little uncertainty and how this
can be applied to severe weather events built out of uncertainty.