Identification

Title

Global responses of the coupled thermosphere and ionosphere system to the August 2017 Great American Solar Eclipse

Abstract

It is commonly believed that solar eclipses have a great impact on the ionosphere-thermosphere (I-T) system within the eclipse shadow, but little attention has been paid to the global response to these events. In this study, we investigate the global upper atmospheric responses to the recent Great American Solar Eclipse that occurred on 21 August 2017 using a high-resolution coupled ionosphere-thermosphere-electrodynamics model. The simulation results show that the ionosphere and thermosphere response to the eclipse is not just local but global. Large-scale traveling atmospheric disturbances (TADs), seen in the thermospheric temperature and winds, were triggered from the eclipse region and propagated in a southeast direction when the eclipse ended. A large total electron content (TEC) enhancement occurred over South America after the eclipse was over. The TEC enhancement was primarily the result of transport by the thermospheric wind perturbations associated with the eclipse-induced TADs. The perturbations of TEC, neutral temperature, and winds exhibited asymmetric distributions with respect to the totality path during the solar eclipse. Furthermore, ionospheric electrodynamic processes also play an important role in the global responses of the I-T system to the solar eclipse. Unlike the case of large-scale TADs propagating from the eclipse region to other locations in the globe, the ionospheric electric fields and plasma drifts began to show significant perturbations even during the local pre-eclipse period when local wind and temperature had not been perturbed. This is related to the instantaneous global response of the ionospheric current system to changes in the ionospheric conductivity and winds in the eclipse region.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d70k2cgk

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2018-08-01T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact