Ionospheric Response to the December 14, 2020 Total Solar Eclipse in South America

Abstract

Solar eclipses are known to generate changes throughout the atmosphere, from the surface of the Earth to the top of the ionosphere (Anderson, 1999). Because these changes occur as a result of the passage of the shadow of the Moon, which can be accurately predicted, the eclipse can be used as a controlled atmospheric experiment (Clayton, 1901). Since many atmospheric processes are still not well understood, solar eclipses provide valuable data to further understand atmospheric phenomena.One atmospheric effect produced by total solar eclipses (TSEs), which is now easily measured using GNSS technology, is the change in ionospheric total electron content (TEC). TSEs can generate or favor the observation of at least three TEC perturbation types. First, the umbra creates an ionospheric TEC depletion due to the obscuration of the Sun's ionizing radiation. Second, the sudden cooling of the atmosphere combined with the supersonic speed of the umbra can trigger gravity waves (

Ionospheric response modeling under eclipse conditions: Evaluation of 14 December 2020, total solar eclipse prediction over the South American sector

“…In this study, the authors assumed that during the eclipse totality, a 30% of the coronal radiation remains, similarly as in previous studies (Reinisch et al, 2018;Bravo et al, 2020). Although a C4-class solar flare was detected on the day of the eclipse, no significant ionospheric impact was observed during this day, as indicated in previous studies of this event (Gómez, 2021;de Haro Barbás et al, 2022). Therefore, in this study, we consider that no significant contribution modified the overall ionospheric response to the eclipse, allowing a direct comparison to the model prediction results.…”

“…Measurements of multiple ground-based instruments along the continent (i.e., ionosonde stations, an Incoherent Scatter Radar, and GNSS receiver networks) and satellites (i.e., Swarm-A) are used to evaluate the accuracy of simulation results, providing a testbed scenario to determine the accuracy of the ionospheric prediction model under total eclipse conditions. In addition, the results of this evaluation are compared to the ionospheric response to the 2 July 2019, solar eclipse that occurred in the same geographical area (Bravo et al, 2020;Jonah et al, 2020;Maurya et al, 2020) and previous studies that evaluated the ionospheric response to the 14 December 2020, solar eclipse (e.g., Gómez, 2021;Meza et al, 2021;Shrivastava et al, 2021;de Haro Barbás et al, 2022;Resende et al, 2022).…”

The 14 December 2020 Total Solar Eclipse Effects on Geomagnetic Field Variations and Plasma Density Over South America

“…In addition, they expected ionospheric changes in the conjugate hemisphere during this event. Gómez (2021) has reported, modeled, and interpreted the Gravity Waves (GWs) perturbations in the ionosphere to this solar eclipse along the totality path. The author detected the wave‐induced phenomena on Total Electron Content (TEC) measurements near the Southern Andes in the Patagonia region and showed a good agreement between the SAMI3 ionospheric model predictions and the TEC data for this solar eclipse event.…”

“…The Total Solar Eclipse (TSE) that occurred on 14 December 2020 is a great opportunity to evaluate the effects on the geomagnetic field variations and the plasma density in South America. Recent studies have reported the observations and predictions of the atmospheric and ionospheric effects of this eclipse event (de Haro Barbás et al, 2022;Gómez, 2021;Martínez-Ledesma et al, 2020;Resende et al, 2022;Shrivastava et al, 2021). Using the SUPIM-INPE (Sheffield University Plasmasphere-Ionosphere Model-INPE) model, Martínez-Ledesma et al (2020) first predicted the ionospheric response to the TSE that occurred on 14 December 2020.…”

IonosphericTotal Electron Content Changes during the 15 February 2018 and 30 April 2022 Solar Eclipses over South America and Antarctica

“…They modified the SUPIM to simulate the behavior of solar obscuration on the ionosphere at low and middle magnetic latitudes. Gómez [45] compared TEC variations using 46 GNSS stations around the path of the umbra of the eclipse to that predicted by the SAMI3. The results showed that TEC perturbations after totality could be triggered by orographic gravity waves (oGWs) not related to the eclipse.…”