Temperature response to the June 2020 solar eclipse observed by FORMOSAT-7/COSMIC2 in the Tibet sector

Abstract

AbstractThis study explores the response of atmospheric temperature to the annular solar eclipse at the summer solstice on 21 June 2020. The radio occultation (RO) technique of the FORMOSAT-7/COSMIC2 (F7/C2) mission observes the temperature in the troposphere and stratosphere. The RO observations show that the temperature decreases significantly (near 4 to 8 °C) between 5 and 8 km altitudes over the Tibetan Plateau area within the 80% obscuration during the eclipse. The tropopause temperature increases by ~ 2 to 5 °C over the same area. By contrast, the tropopause temperature decreases by ~ 4° to 5 °C over the Indian Ocean. The F7/C2 RO technique captured not only the sudden tropospheric cooling and stratospheric warming over Tibet during the eclipse but also the possible response over the Indian Ocean away from the greatest eclipse.