Ionospheric total electron content response to solar eclipses

Abstract

On October 24, 1995, and March 9, 1997, two solar eclipse events occur. It is therefore of interest to investigate how the ionosphere responded to the eclipses. Five global positioning system (GPS) ground‐based receivers are specifically designed to observe large‐scale ionospheric variations over the geomagnetic equatorial, equatorial anomaly crest, and midlatitude regions. Two‐dimensional images of ionospheric total electron content (TEC) during the two eclipse periods are constructed. The deviations in the TEC images on eclipse days from those on reference days show that during the eclipse days the ionosphere experienced some large‐scale changes. Four features of the TEC deviations, pre‐ascension (PA), major depression (MD), sunset ascension (SA), and secondary depression (SD) have been observed. A detailed study shows that in geomagnetic low latitudes, PAs are possibly related to the locations of the equatorial anomaly crest. The latitudinal location, amplitude, and occurrence time of MDs suggest that the fountain effect is essential. SAs and SDs occurring in geomagnetic equatorial and low latitudes and appearing respectively before/around and after local sunset indicate that the prereversal enhancement plays an important role.