Mid-Atlantic Section Meeting 2021
Volume 66, Number 18
Friday–Sunday, December 3–5, 2021;
Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey
Session H02: General Contributions in Solar-Terrestrial Physics
11:15 AM–12:51 PM,
Sunday, December 5, 2021
Room: 201B
Chair: Bea Gallardo-Lacourt, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Abstract: H02.00002 : The ionosphere-thermosphere system's response to a total solar eclipse: looking forward to December 4, 2021*
11:51 AM–12:27 PM
Preview Abstract
Abstract
Author:
Gareth Perry
(New Jersey Inst of Tech)
The topic of this presentation will be the upcoming December 4, 2021 total
solar eclipse and planned experiments to study the eclipse's effects on the
ionosphere-thermosphere (IT) system. A total solar eclipse offers a unique
opportunity to study the impulse response of the coupled IT system as the
relatively sudden onset of the obscuration of the solar disc is comparable
to a delta-function impulse acting on the system. Starting at 07:00:01 UT on
December 4, 2021, just west of the South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands
in the South Atlantic Ocean, the umbra of the eclipse will begin its
southerly and westerly journey, traverse the Weddell Sea, Ronne Ice Shelf,
and Palmer Land, and finish at the day/night terminator in the
Bellingshausen Sea at approximately 08:06:29 UT. The remoteness of this
eclipse's path makes it difficult to study with ground-based instruments;
however, the path of totality is close to several populated scientific
installations in Antarctica, including McMurdo Station, allowing for some
opportunity to study the event from the ground. Several spacecraft,
including CASSIOPE, the Canadian low-Earth orbit satellite carrying the
Enhanced Polar Outflow Probe (e-POP), will be well positioned to study the
eclipse. The probe will cross the umbral path within 30 minutes of totality,
at approximately 800 km altitude.
In preparation for the December eclipse, we will discuss past eclipse
studies, focusing on the IT system's response to each event, including
results from the 2017 ``Great American Eclipse'', which is arguably one of
the most heavily studied eclipses from an IT perspective. We will outline
outstanding questions concerning the effects of an eclipse on the IT system
which remain unresolved, including whether travelling ionospheric
disturbances (TIDs) are a byproduct of an eclipse. These outstanding
questions form the foundation of our upcoming e-POP Antarctica Eclipse
Campaign, which is scheduled to commence in mid-November 2021. We will
provide details of the e-POP campaign as well as other international efforts
underway to observe the eclipse, despite the complexity of instrument
deployment during the COVID-19 pandemic.
*This work is supported by NASA grant number 80NSSC21K1774