Publication Date:
2018-10-25
Description:
It has been proposed (Chimonas & Hines, https://doi.org/10.1029/JA075i004p00875) that a total solar eclipse should generate internal gravity waves (GWs) that manifest as traveling ionospheric disturbances (TIDs) at ionospheric heights. Zhang et al. (, https://doi.org/10.1002/2017GL076054) recently reported observations of electron density perturbations trailing the region of maximum obscuration, claiming the results as the first unambiguous evidences for eclipse-induced bow waves. We present evidence showing extensive TID activity on two consecutive days, the day of the eclipse and the day before. A particularly intense TID concentric wavefield emerged from the background ionosphere 5 hr before the arrival of the totality and persisted there throughout the eclipse. The apparent center was located over Iowa/South Dakota region, 300–500 km north from the eclipse path. We examine concurrent observations of tropospheric and ionospheric weather and find a great spatiotemporal correlation. TID wave parameters do agree with previous observations and models of thunderstorm-generated GWs/TIDs; conversely, the wave parameters are an order of magnitude off from modeling results for eclipse-generated GWs/TIDs. ©2018. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved.
Print ISSN:
0094-8276
Electronic ISSN:
1944-8007
Topics:
Geosciences
,
Physics
