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- Title
Ionospheric Effects of the August 11, 2018, Solar Eclipse over the People's Republic of China.
- Authors
Chernogor, L. F.; Mylovanov, Yu. B.
- Abstract
The purpose of the work is to describe ionospheric effects of the August 11, 2018, partial solar eclipse (SE) that occurred over the People's Republic of China as observed via GPS technology. Solar eclipses are rare phenomena of nature. During 2–3 h, the rearrangement of processes acting at the Earth's surface, in the atmosphere, geospace, i.e., in the Earth–atmosphere–ionosphere–magnetosphere system (EAIMS), occurs. The response of this system depends on the solar activity, season, time of day, and on the state of atmospheric and space weather. Therefore, the investigation of the EAIMS response to SEs remains an urgent problem. The response is accompanied by controllable dynamic processes, the study of which improves our understanding of the near-Earth environment. Studying the EAIMS response to SEs is of fundamental importance to science. Its practical applications include the following. Solar eclipses cause significant disturbances in EAIMS, which affect the propagation of radio waves in almost all frequency ranges and, as a result, deteriorate the performance of radars, radio astronomy and radio navigation systems, and tools for remote environment sensing. SE effects have been studied for over 100 years. Thus far, the following regular effects have been studied quite well: reductions in the electron density, electron and ion temperatures, variations in ion composition, and plasma vertical movements. The irregular effects have been studied to a much less extent, and they can vary from one solar eclipse to another. The main feature of the SE over the PRC has been the fact that it was observed during the time before local time sunset period. The maximum magnitude of the eclipse within the PRC area varied from 0.07 to 0.52, while the Sun's surface area shadowed by the Moon was observed to be 0.02–0.42. The onset of the eclipse over the PRC has been observed to occur in the period ∼09:54–10:05 UT, and the ending time varied from 10:07 UT to 11:10 UT. The SE duration varied from a few minutes to approximately 67 min. The insignificant duration of the eclipse and the dusk terminator affected the SE effects. The state of space weather during the solar eclipse was favorable for observing SE effects occurring in the ionosphere. The global navigation satellite system data have been processed to reveal the ionospheric response to the August 11, 2018, SE. The ionospheric time delay and, respectively, the vertical total electron content (TEC), have been calculated combining the pseudo-range and integrated-phase data at two frequencies. Regardless of the dusk terminator influence, we have managed to confidently detect the ionospheric SE effects, which proved to be sufficiently small due to a small SE phase. Over the People's Republic of China area, a funnel-shaped decrease in TEC has been observed to occur approximately 1300 km in latitude and 2000 km in longitude. The TEC reduction has been found to be 7%. The solar eclipse was accompanied by the generation of aperiodic TEC disturbances at a rate of 0.4–0.8 TEC unit/h and 105-min in duration. Wave disturbances caused by the SE have not been observed confidently, which is due to a small SE phase and insignificant disturbances in the electron density.
- Subjects
CHINA; RADIO astronomy; SOLAR eclipses; SPACE environment; RADIO wave propagation; ECLIPSES; SURFACE of the earth; ELECTRON density; GLOBAL Positioning System
- Publication
Kinematics & Physics of Celestial Bodies, 2020, Vol 36, Issue 6, p274
- ISSN
0884-5913
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.3103/S0884591320060021