JGR Space Physics - 2021 - Chen - Disturbances in Sporadic E During The Great Solar Eclipse of August 21 2017

RESEARCH ARTICLE Disturbances in Sporadic-E During the Great Solar
10.1029/2020JA028986
Eclipse of August 21, 2017
Key Points:
G. Chen1 , J. Wang1, B. W. Reinisch2,3, Y. Li1 , and W. Gong1
• F our Digisondes have recorded the
same interesting phenomena in 1
Electronic Information School, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China, 2Lowell Digisonde International, Lowell, MA, USA,
Sporadic E during and after the solar 3
Space Science Laboratory, University of Massachusetts, Lowell, MA, USA
eclipse of August 21, 2017
• Depletion on fbEs curves were
recorded during the solar eclipse and
the minimum fbEs appeared around Abstract The great solar eclipse traveled eastward through the American Continent from coast to
the eclipse maximum coast on August 21, 2017 and provided a rare opportunity to investigate the ionospheric responses to
• Enhancement on ftEs-fbEs curves
were recorded after the solar eclipse
the rapid solar radiation variations. We have analyzed the peak electron density and density gradient
and may be related to the gravity variations in Sporadic E (Es) and applied the data of four Digisondes close to the eclipse path. All the four
wave breaking Digisondes have recorded the same interesting phenomena. One is the depletion on the fbEs (blanketing
frequency of Es layer) curve during the solar eclipse and the other is the enhancements on the semi-
Correspondence to: transparency parameter of Es layer Δf after the solar eclipse, where Δf = ftEs−fbEs, and ftEs is the top
G. Chen, frequency of Es layer. The wind disturbances on the tidal wind and the photoionization decrease during
g.chen@whu.edu.cn the eclipse are put forward as a possible reason for the peak plasma density reduce. The periodic gravity
waves have been observed in both ionospheric E and F region. However, the Δf enhancements occurred
Citation: after the gravity waves had passed through the Es layer. Thus, we suggest that the solar induced waves
Chen, G., Wang, J., Reinisch, B. W., Li, did not raise the plasma density gradient directly. Gravity waves breaking may occur in the Mesosphere/
Y., & Gong, W. (2021). Disturbances
in Sporadic-E during the great solar Lower Thermosphere region to deposit momentum and produce turbulence, and so the accompanying
eclipse of August 21, 2017. Journal of instabilities may be generated to enhance the electron density gradient in E-region.
Geophysical Research: Space Physics,
126, e2020JA028986. https://doi.
org/10.1029/2020JA028986
1. Introduction
Received 1 DEC 2020 Sporadic-E (Es) is a comparatively strong and protracted transmission returned from the E region of
Accepted 8 APR 2021
the ionosphere by some mechanism other than the normal reflection process from the daytime E layer
(Smith, 1957). It is produced accidentally and becomes active at any time of the day or night. It seems that
the photochemical process does not dominate the formation of Es (Whitehead, 1972). Solar eclipse provides
a very unique opportunity to study the responses of the ionospheric Es to the rapid solar radiation variation.
The responses of ionospheric F-layer to solar eclipse is predictable (Le et al., 2010; Liu et al., 2000; Wu
et al., 2018). The decrease in plasma density and Total Electron Content (TEC) is almost inevitable (Cherni-
ak & Zakharenkova, 2018; Li et al., 1981; Mitra et al., 1933; Reinisch et al., 2018; Wells, 1952). The enhance-
ment and the periodic disturbances in F2-layer are also the research hotspots of the ionospheric responses to
solar eclipse (Chen et al., 2015; Chimonas & Hines, 1970; Nayak & Yiğit, 2018; Reinisch et al., 2018). How-
ever, there is a little consensus about the Es responses to an eclipse. It seems that the recorded phenomena
of different eclipse cases are different to each other (e.g., Datta, 1973; Pezzopane, Pietrella, et al., 2015; Stof-
fregen, 1955). In some cases, no special features in Es could be found during and after the solar eclipse (Pez-
zopane, Pietrella, et al., 2015; Thampi et al., 2010). However, the earliest observations of 1945–1952 eclipse
have recorded the decrease of the top frequency of Es layer (ftEs) in many sites (Stoffregen, 1955). During
the total solar eclipse of July 22, 2009, the sharp decrease in ftEs near the crest of Equatorial Ionospheric
Anomaly (EIA) region was recorded soon after the eclipse maximum and ending (Tiwari et al., 2019). In
many cases, the increase in ftEs was observed. The enhancement of Es ionization during the solar eclipse of
June 20, 1955 was first reported (Datta, 1972, 1973). Then, there was no Es enhancement reported until the
solar eclipse of July 22, 2009. During and after this eclipse, the ionosondes at Wuhan, Chung-Li, and Bhopal
have observed the periodic peaks on the ftEs curves (Brahmanandam et al., 2013; Chen et al., 2010; Yadav
et al., 2013). More importantly, the solar eclipse was found capable to induce the E-region Field-Aligned Ir-
© 2021. American Geophysical Union. regularities (FAIs) through the gradient drift instability driven by the eclipsed generated gravity waves from
All Rights Reserved. lower atmosphere (Brahmanandam et al., 2013; Chen et al., 2014; Thampi et al., 2010).
CHEN ET AL. 1 of 13
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Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics 10.1029/2020JA028986
Figure 1. Geographical locations of the four Digisondes located in Idaho (orange dot), Boulder (green dot), Alpena
(brown dot) and Austin (black dot), respectively. Blue solid line represents the eclipse totality path and blue dotted lines
represent the eclipse paths of 80%, 60%, and 40% eclipse magnitude (the fraction of the sun’s diameter covered by the
moon at mid eclipse). The greatest eclipse is indicated as the red rhombus.
Ionospheric Sporadic-E is mainly characterized by its occasionality and uncertainty. The Es depletion or
enhancement observed at single site during and after a solar eclipse is not necessarily related with eclipse,
and may be a day-to-day variation. The dense ionosonde observation network around the path of August
21, 2017 total solar eclipse provides us a rare opportunity to take a more comprehensive approach to the
Es responses to the rapid solar radiation variation. The data of four Digisondes close to the eclipse path are
selected and analyzed. In Section 2, the observations of the four Digisondes are presented. In Section 3, we
analyze both the E- and F-region parameters and discuss the possible mechanism for the depletion of the
blanketing frequency of Es layer (fbEs) during the eclipse and the enhancement of the Δf after the eclipse.
In last section, the major conclusions from this study are summarized.
2. Observations
A great total solar eclipse traveled across the continental United States on August 21, 2017. As shown in
Figure 1, the totality eclipse moved from the east coast at 16:50 UT (Universal Time) to the west coast at
20:02 UT. Most part of the continental United States was in the moon shadow with the eclipse magnitude
larger than 70%. The red rhombus in Figure 1 indicates the greatest eclipse on the total eclipse path. Four
Digisondes over the American continent were used to investigate the Es variations due to the solar eclipse
on August 21. A Digisonde is an ionospheric radar that uses high frequency radio waves for remote sensing
of ionosphere. It is developed by the University of Massachusetts Lowell and equipped with an advanced
digital ionosonde system (Reinisch et al., 2009). The SAO Explorer software is used to estimate the iono-
spheric electron density profile according to the ordinary echo trace from F-layer (Huang & Reinisch, 1996).
The four Digisondes are located in Idaho, Boulder, Alpena, and Austin with the 100%, 95%, 76%, and 73%
eclipse magnitudes, respectively. Eclipse magnitude is the fraction of the sun’s diameter covered by the
moon at mid eclipse. The geographical coordinates and magnetic latitudes (M. Lat.) of the four Digisondes
are (43.81°N, 112.68°W, M. Lat. 50.99°N), (40.00°N, 105.30°W, M. Lat. 48.11°N), (45.07°N, 83.56°W, M. Lat.
54.83°N), and (30.40°N, 97.70°W, M. Lat. 39.31°N), respectively. At the eclipse day, the Idaho Digisonde
sampled an ionogram every 1 min, and the sampling rate at Alpena was 15 min. At the other two sites, the
ionogram was recorded every 5 min. The ionospheric parameters, such as fbEs, ftEs, as well as the echo trace
from F-layer are manually scaled in each ionogram.
CHEN ET AL. 2 of 13
Figure 2. Variations of the fbEs recorded by the Digisondes at (a) Idaho, (b) Boulder, (c) Alpena, and (d) Austin. The
green, red, and blue curves indicate the fbEs variations observed on August 20, 21, and 22. The vertical blue dotted lines
mark the local Beginning (B), Maximum (M), and Ending (E) time of the solar eclipse.
The Kp-index is the global geomagnetic activity index that is based on 3-h measurements from ground-
based magnetometers around the world. The Dst index is an index of magnetic activity derived from a net-
work of near-equatorial geomagnetic observatories that measures the intensity of the globally symmetrical
equatorial electrojet (the “ring current”). Usually, the geomagnetic activities have almost no influence on
the mid-latitude E-region. We will analyze the periodic disturbances in F2-layer, so the Kp and Dst indexes
throughout the eclipse day are investigated. The Kp index was less than or equal to the threshold of 3 and
the Dst index was larger than the threshold of −30 nanotesla (nT), indicating there was no geomagnetic
activity on August 21, 2017 (Mayaud, 1980). The 10.7 cm solar radio flux, namely F10.7 is one of the most
widely used indexes of solar activity (Covington, 1969). It is expressed in solar flux units (sfu). The daily flux
values in the eclipse day and reference days were less than the threshold of 120 sfu, implying the quiet solar
activity. Thus, the recorded data on August 20, 21, and 22 are comparable.
Variations of the fbEs at the four locations are displayed in Figure 2. Comparing the fbEs variations recorded
in the eclipse day and reference days, we can find that all the fbEs curves of the 3 days present anomalous
enhancement and depletion. However, after labeling the local eclipse time on the four plots in Figure 2, the
obvious regularity emerges. The four red curves recorded on the eclipse day by the four Digisondes began
to decrease at the local beginning of the solar eclipse, reached their minimum at around the eclipse maxi-
Austin Digisonde around the eclipse beginning in Figure 2d. This enhancement began at 16:15 UT, ∼25 min
mum, and then recovered until the eclipse end. There was a very obvious fbEs enhancement recorded by the
before the eclipse beginning, and the other three Digisondes have not observed the similar enhancement
around the eclipse beginning. Therefore, it is an anomalous enhancement on fbEs curve and should be ir-
relevant to the solar eclipse. On the other hand, the fbEs depletions at the four sites may have something to
do with the solar radiation variations during the eclipse. Considering the anomalous enhancement at the
eclipse beginning over Austin, we estimate the depletion by the difference between the fbEs values at the
eclipse maximum and end (fbEsm and fbEse) divided by the eclipse end values, namely, (fbEsm−fbEse)/fbEse
(%). The estimated depletion rate at Idaho, Boulder, Alpena, and Austin are 44.79%, 26.82%, 26.06%, and
29.3%, which is almost in proportion to the local eclipse magnitudes except for that at Boulder. There are
obvious periodic disturbances on the fbEs curve at Boulder during the eclipse, implying the strong impact of
the waves on the Es layer, and so the estimated result of the Es depletion over Boulder becomes inaccurate.
CHEN ET AL. 3 of 13
Figure 3. Variations of the ftEs (left column) and Δf (right column) recorded by the Digisondes at Idaho (first row),
Boulder (second row), Alpena (third row), and Austin (last row) on eclipse day (red curves), the day before (green
curves), and the day after (blue curves). The three vertical lines imply the local eclipse beginning, maximum, and
ending.
All the four Digisondes have recorded the obvious enhancements of ftEs after the eclipse ending. As shown
in the left column of Figure 3, the ftEs variations in the control days were often lower than 5 MHz, but the
ftEs curves after the eclipse present many high peaks. The largest ftEs peaks at Idaho, Boulder, Alpena,
and Austin reach 6.0, 11.9, 7.4, and 9.9 MHz at 20:00, 21:35, 22:00, and 20:40 UT, respectively, and there
are many other smaller peaks around the highest peak. The Δf = ftEs−fbEs is also estimated and displayed
in the right column of Figure 3. There were some peaks appeared at around the local eclipse maximum in
Figures 3b, 3d, and 3h. The Δf is the difference between ftEs and fbEs, so the Δf enhancement is the result of
ftEs enhancement, or fbEs depletion, or both of them. These enhancements are mainly induced by the fbEs
decrease, and their amplitude is relatively small. Therefore, we think that it makes no physical sense. The
enhancements on the Δf curves after the eclipse are very similar to those on the ftEs curves. The peak Δf
values at the four sites approach 2.48, 7.58, 4.86, and 6.36 MHz, respectively. There no obvious relationship
CHEN ET AL. 4 of 13
between the Δf enhancements and the local eclipse magnitudes. The enhancements at Idaho and Austin
appeared just after the eclipse ending, and those at Boulder and Alpena appeared more than an hour after
the eclipse ending. There is no distinct rule in the occurrence time of the Δf enhancements.
The peak height and virtual height variations of E-layer (hmE and h′E) at the four sites in the solar eclipse day
also have been investigated and no distinct characteristics can be found on these height parameters, thus the
corresponding plots are not presented. It is perhaps due to the small height range of E-layer, which is usu-
ally less than 10 km, while the height resolution of a Digisonde is 2.5 km. Moreover, the wind convergence
plays a dominant role in E-region and the E × B drift is hard to work in such a thin layer (Mathews, 1998).
3. Analysis and Discussion

3.1. Depletion of fbEs
Peak electron density of F2-layer can be estimated by critical frequency of F2-layer (foF2), however, critical
frequency of Es layer (foEs) has no connection with the peak electron density of Es-layer. The simultane-
ous observations of mid-latitude Es by rockets and ionosondes had been executed in the 1960s (Reddy &
Mukunda Rao, 1968). The electron concentration values estimated by foEs and ftEs are much larger than the
in-site measured values. On the other hand, there is an error within 10% on the average between the in-site
measured and the fbEs estimated electron concentration values. The E-region electron density profiles esti-
mated by the Radio Occultation (RO) technology implemented by the FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC satellites are
compared with the ionosonde measured parameters (Arras & Wickert, 2018; Resende Chagas et al., 2018).
The electron density obtained using fbEs is in good agreement with the RO measurements. Thus, the iono-
spheric parameter fbEs can represent the electron density variations in Es to some extent.
Rocket-borne mass spectrometric measurements have demonstrated that Es layers are mainly composed of
metal ions such as Fe+, Mg+, and Na+ (Grebowsky et al., 2001; Kopp, 1997). Meteoric ablation is consid-
ered to be the main reason for these atomic ions, which have relatively long lifetime due to extremely slow
radiative recombination with electrons in E region (Layzer, 1972; Plane, 2003; Whitehead, 1961). The for-
mation mechanism of Es is known as the “windshear theory,” and the horizontal wind with vertical shear
acts on the metal ions by neutral-ion collisions and Lorentz force to form a layer with very high plasma
density (Axford, 1963; Mathews, 1998; Whitehead, 1989). However, according to the long-term observa-
tions, there are strong dependence of the fbEs on the solar zenith angle and the daily fbEs variations attains
its maximum value around noon in all seasons and all zones (Matsushita and Reddy, 1967; Reddy and
Matsushita, 1969). The wind shear in the tidal winds at the E-layer heights is assumed as the most probable
mechanism for the formation of the Es at middle and low latitudes (Mathews, 1998; Pignalberi et al., 2014;
Resende et al., 2018). During the great American solar eclipse, the fbEs curves recorded at four different lo-
cations were varying in phase with the changes of the eclipse amplitude. There is a possibility that the local
tidal winds have been significantly influenced by the lunar shadow. As mentioned by Chen et al. (2010),
the quick moving lunar shadow may cool the atmosphere and produce large temperature gradients along
the eclipse path, and so the air will flow into the cooled region to form the eclipse induced wind field. The
eclipse-induced disturbances in atmospheric wind field will have impact on the tidal wind in the shadow
region, and so they have the ability to weaken the wind shear generated in the tidal wind. The wind shear
mechanism compels the long-lived metal ions to converge into thin plasma layer, namely Sporadic-E. While
this mechanism is weakened, the strength of wind convergence and compression will reduce and the peak
plasma density in Es will also decrease. When the solar radiation recovers, the temperature gradients will be
smoothed, the air flow will taper off, and the tidal winds will seize the initiative again.
The complete synchronization between the eclipse amplitude and the fbEs variations make us doubt the ac-
tual effect of the eclipse induced winds. We are not altogether sure that whether the strength of the eclipse
produced winds is in direct ratio to the local eclipse amplitude and whether the wind disturbance can sig-
nificantly influence the wind shear in the tidal winds. The variations of hEs on the eclipse and control days
are also investigated. Es is a very thin layer with relatively fixed height range, moreover, the eclipse induced
waves have disturbed the Es layer, thus, no obvious regularity can be found on the hEs curves at the four
locations during the eclipse. As simulated by Harper et al. (1975), the peak plasma density in Es is mainly
determined by diffusion rather than recombination, but the recombination coefficients in this layer cannot
CHEN ET AL. 5 of 13
be totally neglected. Though the metal ions essentially stem from the meteoric shower activity, they also can
be produced indirectly by photoionization (Pezzopane, Pignalberi, et al., 2015; Withers et al., 2008). In this
way, it is easier to understand and accept the the rapid responses of the peak Es density to the solar flux var-
iations during the eclipse. In summary, the depletion on the fbEs curves may be associated with the eclipsed
induced wind disturbance or decrease of photoionization, or both of them. We can notice that the similar
synchronous variations also occurred in the ionospheric F1-layers as the observations during this and other
solar eclipses, which are attributed to the reduced photoionization (e.g., Adeniyi et al., 2007; Gerasopoulos
et al., 2008; Reinisch et al., 2018). On the other hand, we consider that it will spend a relatively long time
forming the enough wind disturbance acting on the Es plasma. Thus, the electron density variations due
to the disturbed wind field will lag behind the solar flux changes. As indicated in Figure 2, the real-time
responses of the Es plasma density to the eclipse phases imply the major role of the photoionization.
3.2. Enhancement of Δf
The ionospheric parameters of foEs and ftEs have been widely used to investigate the Es dynamic. Many
observations report the foEs or ftEs enhancements during or after a solar eclipse (e.g., Brahmanandam
et al., 2013; Datta, 1972). However, these two parameters are much larger than the peak plasma frequen-
cy of Es and their exact physical significance has still unknown. The drastic fluctuations on the foEs and
ftEs curves could imply the traversing of atmospheric waves (Chen et al., 2014). On the other hand, the
semi-transparency of Es layer can be indicated by the parameter Δf = ftEs−fbEs (Fahrutdinova et al., 1997).
Δf is also used as an indicator of the strength of electron density gradients in the mid-latitude, and the steep-
er electron density gradients with larger Δf are very favorable for the excitation of irregularities through the
gradient drift instability (Ogawa et al., 2002). The observations in the low-latitudes also reveal the close asso-
ciation between the Δf and the occurrence of the daytime FAIs (Patra et al., 2005; Phanikumar et al., 2008).
Therefore, we use Δf to investigate the electron density gradient variations in Es on the eclipse day.
Though the Δf enhancements also occurred in the control days, they were only observed by a single Di-
gisonde. In 2 h after the eclipse end, all the four Digisondes have recorded the obvious Δf enhancements
and they are much larger than the usual peaks. Therefore, the anomalous enhancements are very likely to
be related to the great solar eclipse. Furthermore, the Δf peaks appeared after the eclipse end, and so there is
no direct connection between the Δf peaks and the rapid solar radiation reduction, but the indirect connec-
tion can be suggested. The rapid increase of the density gradient of Es is often attributed to the gravity wave
modulations (Woodman et al., 1991). We investigate the wave components in the electron density of Es layer
and analyze the fbEs curve recorded on the eclipse day by the wavelet analysis. As shown by the estimated
time-period spectra in Figure 4, the four Digisondes have recorded the similar periodic components during
the eclipse period. According to the red contour in the spectra, the wave components over Idaho, Boulder,
Alpena, and Austin are 47.1–72.2, 38.3–53.0, 47.1–60.3, and 50.0–63.3 min, respectively. The waves over
Idaho and Boulder have propagated across the Es layer at the end of the eclipse and the waves over Alpena
and Austin continued after the eclipse ending.
To further study the features of the waves, we use the F2-layer data of the Idaho Digisonde. The very high
sampling rate of 1 min makes the Idaho Digisonde can distinguish the wave phase changes at different
heights. The plasma density profiles are estimated by the manually scaled echo traces with the SAO explor-
er and compose the altitude-time plot of the plasma frequency in Figure 5a. The black curve represents
the peak height of F2-layer (hmF2). There was a rapid fall on the hmF2 curve at 18:10 UT. The same phe-
nomenon was also recorded by the ionosonde during the March 29, 2006 eclipse (Adeniyi et al., 2007). As
indicated by Reinisch at al. (2018), the peak electron density of F2-layer (NmF2) decreased so greatly during
the solar eclipse that the peak electron density of F1-layer (NmF1) became larger than the NmF2, thus, the
rapid fall of the hmF2 appeared. The plasma frequency variations at the selected altitudes between 150 and
190 km with 10 km step are displayed in Figures 5b–5f and the five blue curves are filtered by a 20–80 min
band-pass filter. The echoes of an ionosonde are reflected from the heights below hmF2 and the estimated
plasma frequency above hmF2 comes from the numerical model (Huang & Reinisch, 1996). Thus, we select
the plasma frequencies below the hmF2 for analysis. We can find the obvious periodic fluctuations occurring
between 18:00 and 20:00 UT at all the displayed heights. The wavelet analysis results of the plasma fre-
quency curves in Figure 5 is shown in Figure 6. According to the red contour in each plots in Figure 6, the
CHEN ET AL. 6 of 13
Figure 4. Normalized time-period spectra of the fbEs variations recorded at (a) Idaho, (b) Boulder, (c) Alpena, and (d)
Austin. The oblique gray lines represent the COnfidence Interval (COI). The vertical lines mark the local beginning (B),
maximum (M), and ending (E) time of the solar eclipse. COI, COnfidence Interval.
periodic components of 40–60 min appear at all displayed heights. The violet oblique line connects the echo
front at each height and indicates the upward propagating velocity of the waves. As indicated in Figures 4a
and 6, the periodic wave components in E and F regions are similar and the waves in F-layer appeared later.
Accordingly, the eclipsed induced waves should propagate upward, go through the Es layer and then reach
the F-layer. The wave occurrence time at each height is indicated as the red circle in Figure 7a and the cor-
responding altitude and occurrence time are labeled beside the red circles. The gray oblique line is the linear
fitting of the red circles with the least square method and all the five red circles almost lie on the gray line.
Based on the slope coefficient of the fitted line, the vertical group velocity is estimated as 29.14 ± 0.98 m/s
upward. The plasma frequency variations at the five altitudes between 17:00 and 20:00 UT are listed in Fig-
ure 7b. The wave troughs are marked by the blue circles, and the wave crests are marked by the red circles.
Red/blue line links the wave crests/troughs at different altitudes in the vertical direction. All the vertical
CHEN ET AL. 7 of 13
Figure 5. (a) Altitude-time plot of the plasma frequency between 100 and 300 km heights over Idaho. The black curve
represents the peak height of F2-layer (hmF2). Variations of the filtered plasma frequency at (b) 190 km, (c)180 km,
(d)170 km, (e)160 km, and (f)150 km altitudes. The vertical dotted lines mark the local beginning (B), maximum (M),
and ending (E) time of the solar eclipse.
lines slant down, indicating the downward phase velocities. As shown in Figure 6, the wave energy exists
at all the heights between 17:30 and 18:40 UT. Thus, the second red vertical line connecting the wave crests
and the third blue vertical line connecting the wave troughs are applied to estimate the vertical phase ve-
locity. Through the slope coefficients of these two lines, we can estimate the vertical phase velocities of the
waves is 99.5 ± 12.44 or 91.46 ± 5.87 m/s downward.
The estimated vertical group/phase velocity of the eclipse-induced waves are upward/downward, which
well corresponds to the atmospheric gravity waves theory that the energy propagation of gravity waves is
opposite to their phase progression in the vertical direction. Typically, the vertical group velocities of gravity
waves are considered as 30–50 m/s (Galvan et al., 2011). In the model of Artru et al. (2005), a tsunami with
a speed of 221 m/s can generate the gravity wave with the horizontal speed of 210.5 m/s and a vertical speed
CHEN ET AL. 8 of 13
Figure 6. Normalized time-period spectra of the filtered plasma frequency at the altitudes of (a) 190 km, (b) 180 km,
(c) 170 km, (d) 160 km, and (e) 150 km. The violet line indicates the upward propagation of the waves. The white lines
represent the COnfidence Interval (COI). COI, COnfidence Interval.
of 43.2 m/s upward. Recent observations show that the vertical propagation speed of the gravity waves ex-
were investigated by a Digisonde, their vertical phase velocity in F2-layer is estimated as ∼100 m/s down-
tracted from airglow perturbations is 29.2 m/s (Yang et al., 2016). The gravity waves induced by solar eclipse
ward (Liu et al., 1998). The vertical group and phase velocities estimated by us are similar to the previous
observations. In brief, the periodic disturbances recorded in the ionospheric E- and F-regions over Idaho
during the great solar eclipse may be induced by the upward propagating gravity waves. It is widely accepted
that the ozone layer in stratosphere is the main source of the eclipse induced gravity waves (Gerasopoulos
et al., 2008; Girach et al., 2012; Ratnam et al., 2012). There are also many reports about the eclipse produced
gravity waves on the eclipse day of August 21, 2017 (e.g., Lin et al., 2018; Nayak & Yiğit, 2018). Similar to
other observations, the eclipse induced gravity waves were also recorded by the four Digisondes in E-region.
The atmospheric gravity waves have the ability to modulate E-region plasma and generate irregularities
CHEN ET AL. 9 of 13
Figure 7. (a) Red circles show the appearance time of the eclipse-induced waves at different altitudes over Idaho. The
altitude and appearance time are labeled beside the red circle. The gray line is the linear fitting of the five red circles. (b)
Variations of the filtered plasma frequency between 17:00 and 20:00 UT at the altitudes from 150 to 190 km with 10 km
step. The wave troughs are marked by the blue circles, and the wave crests are marked by the red circles. Red/blue line
links the wave crests/troughs at different altitudes in the vertical direction.
through gradient drift instability (Chen et al., 2014; Chu et al., 2011; Woodman et al., 1991). However, the
Δf enhancements appeared in 1 or 2 h after the eclipse ending. The plasma density gradient enhancements
in Figure 3 appeared much later than the occurrence of the wave energy in Figure 4. Therefore, we do not
think that the recorded gravity waves have raised the density gradient in Es directly.
According to the law of energy conservation, the amplitude of a gravity wave increases as the atmospheric
density decreases with height. In the Mesosphere and Lower Thermosphere (MLT) region, the wave ampli-
tude is large enough to generate instabilities, which would lead to wave breaking when the temperature lapse
rate of the waves plus the mean flow becomes super-adiabatic (Hodges, 1967, 1969; Lindzen, 1967, 1968;
Pitteway & Hines, 1963). At the MLT heights, the instabilities have so far been considered to mainly tend to
occur in two types: (1) wind shear instability and (2) convective instability. These instability structures are
closely associated with the external forces, such as gravity waves, neutral wind field, temperature gradient,
and so on. A solar eclipse can provide a relatively easier condition to generate such instabilities due to a
cooling spot in the shadow region. When gravity waves are broken, turbulence could be generated in the
processes, such as non-linear breaking and critical level interaction of waves (Sasi & Vijayan, 2001). On one
hand, the energy and momentum extracted from the waves are transported by the turbulence contributing
CHEN ET AL. 10 of 13
to the eddy diffusion process above the breaking level, which is effective to prevent further wave amplitude
growth with altitude, and leading to deposition of wave momentum flux. On the other hand, turbulence
may heat the atmosphere by the dissipation of the turbulent energy and the turbulent eddies will transport
heat to different atmospheric regions. Due to the deposition of the wave momentum flux and heating effects
of the turbulence, the local wind field may become converged attributed to the process of energy changes in
atmosphere/ionosphere and so the Kelvin-Helmholtz (K-H) instability begins to work. The K-H instability
in wind-shear is expected to deepen the E-region density gradient for the possible generation of irregulari-
ties (Didebulidze & Lomidze, 2008; Larsen, 2000; Mathews, 1998). Gravity wave breaking in the MLT region
is an essentially complicated process of energy exchange and need a relative long time to accumulate its
effects, maybe that’s why the Δf enhancement occurred after the eclipse induced gravity waves have passed
through the Es layer.
4. Conclusions
Ionospheric Sporadic-E is very different from F1 and F2-layer. It is mainly composed of metal ions and wind
shear is prevailing in this region. Solar eclipse provides us a rare opportunity to investigate the responses of
Es to the quick change of the solar flux. According to previous researches, the different Es responses were
observed during different solar eclipses. We take the opportunity of the great solar eclipse on August 21,
2017 to observe the variations in Es by four Digisondes around the eclipse path. We find that the impact
of photoionization also cannot be ignored in Es and the breaking of the eclipse induced gravity waves may
have substantial influence on Es. To further understand what happen in Es, more direct detections, such
as onsite observation by rocket load and incoherent scatter observation, are needed, and the numerical
simulation can also provide more details and many quantified information. In brief, more works needs to
be done in the near future.
Data Availability Statement

The recorded ionograms of the four Digisondes can be freely accessed in the Digital Ionogram Database
(https://ulcar.uml.edu/DIDBase/). The Kp, Dst, and F10.7 data come from the OMNIWeb (https://omniweb.
gsfc.nasa.gov/).
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RESEARCH ARTICLE Disturbances in Sporadic-E During the Great Solar

3. Analysis and Discussion

Data Availability Statement

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