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Phase effects in subionospheric VLF/LF signals observed at middle and low latitudes during the August 21, 2017 total solar eclipse
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  • Viktor Fedun,
  • Mariya Solovieva,
  • Dimitar Ouzounov,
  • Peter Gallagher,
  • Joe McCauley
Viktor Fedun
Plasma Dynamics Group, Department of Automatic Control and Systems Engineering, The University of Sheffield, UK

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Mariya Solovieva
Institute of Physics of the Earth, Russian Academy of Sciences, Russia, Institute of Physics of the Earth, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia
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Dimitar Ouzounov
Chapman University
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Peter Gallagher
Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies
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Joe McCauley
Trinity College Dublin, the University of Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
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Abstract

Experimental study of the phase and amplitude observations of sub-ionospheric very low and low frequency signals is performed to analyze the response of the lower ionosphere during the August 21, 2017 total solar eclipse in the United States of America. Three subionospheric wave paths have been investigated. The length of the paths varied from 2200 to 6500 km, signal frequencies were 21.4 kHz, 25.2 kHz and 40.8 kHz. Two paths crossed the region of total eclipse and the third path was in the region of 40-60% of obscuration. None of the signals revealed any noticeable amplitude changes during the eclipse while negative phase anomalies (from -35° to -95°) were detected for all three paths. It was shown that the effective reflection height of the ionosphere in low and middle latitudes has been increased by 3.5-5 km during the eclipse.