Intermediate Descending Layers Emerged Simultaneously in Five Different Locations During the Solar Eclipse on 21 June 2020

Abstract

AbstractSolar eclipse traveled across South China in the afternoon on 21 June 2020. Five ionosondes located from mid‐to low‐latitudes and on both north and south of the eclipse path were applied to investigate the ionospheric responses. Both the zonal and meridional ranges of the observation region have exceeded 1,000 km. All the five ionosondes had observed the Intermediate Descending Layers (IDLs) simultaneously just after the eclipse maximum and this is a very small probability event. During the solar eclipse, the multi‐hop echoes above the Es, the rising Es to 150 km altitude, the plasma flux from above F2‐layer were also observed and analyzed. The descending trend of the IDLs and the peak height of F2‐layer (hmF2) shows great consistency, indicating the close relationship between the eclipse induced plasma flux and the IDLs. The traces of gravity waves were also found in the IDLs and F‐layer. The plasma flux may carry the ions to valley region and the eclipse produced gravity waves were responsible for the formation of the IDLs.