Lower and middle atmospheric responses to the 22 July 2009 total solar eclipse

Abstract

<span style="mso-bidi-font-family:" times="" new="" roman""="" lang="EN-GB">In the present study, the effect of total solar eclipse, occurred on 22 July 2009, on water vapour in the troposphere, refractivity and temperature in the troposphere and the stratosphere using the observations available from COSMIC GPS RO, is reported. The investigation is extended to the entire middle atmosphere using SABER aboard TIMED satellite to study the response in the temperature and ozone. A significant enhancement in the water vapour and the refractivity in the lower and middle troposphere are noticed on the eclipse day when compared to non-eclipse days. Using the GPS RO observations, it is also found that the temperature responds differently at different altitudes, i.e. cooling in the troposphere and warming in the stratosphere. Similar features in temperature are also noticed in SABER observations below 40 km. Above 40 km altitude, cooling is observed up to an altitude of 70 km, therein again warming is noticed. An increase in ozone concentration is found throughout the middle atmosphere except near 30 km. Tropopause altitude is also observed to vary significantly during the solar eclipse with decrease (increase) in the altitude (temperature) of about 1-1.5 km (3-5 K). Large perturbations in the temperature, due to gravity waves in the stratosphere and the mesosphere, are noticed on the eclipse day and found westward propagating as expected. For the first time, evidences of solar eclipse in the entire lower and middle atmosphere is presented using ground based and satellite borne observations.

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