Impact of a total solar eclipse on surface atmospheric electricity

Abstract

A study of the impact of a total solar eclipse (TSE) on surface atmospheric electricity was made using observations of surface electrical potential gradient, conductivity, and boundary layer parameters recorded during the TSE of February 16, 1980, and on a control day at Raichur. The study showed that with the progressing of the eclipse, as a consequence of inhibited convection, the responses of turbulent mixing in the boundary layer near the ground exhibited diminution and subsequent restoration, respectively. During the next 45 min after the totality, when the surface layer remained stably stratified, the diminution in the potential gradient and the increase in the conductivity was maximum; this was about 60% and 200%, respectively, of their corresponding control day values. This result is in very good agreement with most earlier studies of solar eclipses. The study of the impact of the TSE during 3–4 hours of posteclipse showed significant cooling (∼3°C) of the entire surface air layer and a considerable drop in wind speed over the stretch (1130 km×120 km) of the totality‐occupied land region. This significant and systematic phenomenon was responsible for setting up a land‐sea breezelike circulation, that is, subsidence/downward air motion over the totality‐occupied land region and upward over the noneclipsed land across the totality stretch. This resulted in a considerable aerosol‐induced reduction in conductivity and about 5 to 8 times increase in potential gradient during the 3–4 hours of posteclipse. This response of the atmospheric electricity parameters was unlike that observed on the normal days.

Atmospheric changes from solar eclipses

“…Potential gradient and air conductivity at Raichur, India Manohar et al (1995) 1981 July 31 T Kazahkstan and Russia Fluxes, T Kidd (1985) 1983 June 11 T SE Asia P Gravity waves; multiple sites Seykora et al (1985) 1984 May 30 A Mexico and Sahara Desert T, RH, u, evaporation, solar radiation, net radiation, radar reflectivity;…”

Atmospheric electric parameters and micrometeorological processes during the solar eclipse on 15 January 2010

“…Solar eclipses provide an excellent opportunity to study the changes that happen in the near‐Earth environment when the solar electromagnetic and corpuscular radiations are suddenly cut off by the transit of the Moon. Excellent studies of atmospheric electric parameters during the past solar eclipses have been made in the Indian subcontinent [e.g., Kamra and Varshneya , ; Kamra , ; Dhanokar et al ., ; Manohar et al ., ; De et al ., ; Deshpande and Kamra, ]. Kamra et al .…”

“…Manohar et al . [] noticed a stepwise drop in the electric potential gradient during the same eclipse, and suggested it as a consequence of the eddy motions during the eclipse.…”

Regression-based Gap-filling Methods Show Air Temperature Reductions and Wind Pattern Changes During the 2019 Total Eclipse in Chile

“…This overcomes the issue with using persistence as estimation principle during rapid transition periods (sunrise/-set) and is useful if little information is available otherwise as to how a quantity (e.g. air pressure 42 , winds 5,40 , ozone 10 , aerosol concentrations 41,43 , radar reflectivity 44 , atmospheric electric potential 45 ) typically evolves. An absence of large and rapid fluctuations, however, is nonetheless desirable for estimates based on single reference days to be meaningful.…”