Effects of solar eclipses in the surface atmosphere

Abstract

The results of single-type optical observations, analysis, and comparison of dynamic characteristics of the effects in the surface atmosphere that accompanied four partial solar eclipses (August 11, 1999; May 31, 2003; October 3, 2005; March 29, 2006) near the city of Kharkiv (Ukraine) are presented. The effects observed in the morning, near-noon, and afternoon hours differed markedly. During the solar eclipses, the temperature of the surface atmosphere decreased by 1.3–7.3°. It was detected that, when the maximum value of the occultation function changed from 0.24 to 0.73, the standard deviation of solar-limb displacement σS decreased by 0.14″ and 0.68″, respectively. The time of convection development was found to be 15–16 min. The parameters of dynamic processes in the surface atmosphere have been calculated and the parameters of mechanical and thermal turbulence have been estimated from the results of measurements of the statistical characteristics of the level of solar-limb tremor with invocation of theoretical relations. The solar eclipses were accompanied by quasi-periodic processes in the atmosphere, which were most likely associated with the generation and propagation of internal gravity waves.