Ionospheric monitoring with the Chilean GPS eyeball during the South American total solar eclipse on 2nd July 2019

Ajeet K Maurya,Kondapalli Niranjan Kumar,Mahesh N Shrivastava

doi:10.1038/s41598-020-75986-7

Abstract

The impact of total solar eclipse of July 2, 2019 on the Ionosphere is studied using 24 Chilean GPS stations north–south of the totality path. The total solar eclipse passed through Coquimbo region from ~ 16:38 CLT (~ 20:38 UTC) to ~ 16:40 CLT (~ 20:40 UTC) and maximum eclipse was observed ~ 16:39 CLT (~ 20:39 UTC). The total electron content (TEC) derived from GPS signals shows peculiar features. At the totality stations TEC variations are small (~ 0.39 TECu), but it shows significant decrease (maximum ~ 2.24 TECu) for stations located south and increase (maximum ~ 3.89 TECu) for the stations located north of totality of the surface. The wavelet analysis of VTEC timeseries shows the presence of strong atmospheric gravity waves (AGWs) of duration ~ 30 to 60 min at the stations located north of totality. Thus, the results suggest an interplay between eclipse effect on the ionosphere plasma density and eclipse generated AGWs induced plasma density perturbation provided the peculiar features.

Highlights

We provide a detailed analysis of Global Positing System (GPS) total electron content (TEC) variations during July 2, 2019 total solar eclipse by the GPS stations located both sides of the totality path, providing latitudinal variation
On July 2, 2019, a total solar eclipse occurred over the South American region, during evening time (~ 15:20 CLT-17:50 CLT) along a path from the southern Pacific Ocean, east of New Zealand to the Coquimbo Region in Chile and Central Argentina
The vertical TEC (VTEC) derived from GPS TEC signal for 24 stations during eclipse showed peculiar features not reported before

Summary

Introduction

The observations reported here show an important role of eclipse generated AGWs and background wind direction in affecting GPS signals and TEC. The most important peculiar feature of the present observation is different VTEC variation at different stations with reference to the central totality line (green solid line in Fig. 1) at 350 km height.

Results

Conclusion