Coincidental TID Production by Tropospheric Weather During the August 2017 Total Solar Eclipse

Abstract

Abstract It has been proposed (Chimonas & Hines, , https://doi.org/10.1029/JA075i004p00875) that a total solar eclipse should generate internal gravity waves (GWs) that manifest as traveling ionospheric disturbances (TIDs) at ionospheric heights. Zhang et al. ( , https://doi.org/10.1002/2017GL076054) recently reported observations of electron density perturbations trailing the region of maximum obscuration, claiming the results as the first unambiguous evidences for eclipse‐induced bow waves. We present evidence showing extensive TID activity on two consecutive days, the day of the eclipse and the day before. A particularly intense TID concentric wavefield emerged from the background ionosphere 5 hr before the arrival of the totality and persisted there throughout the eclipse. The apparent center was located over Iowa/South Dakota region, 300–500 km north from the eclipse path. We examine concurrent observations of tropospheric and ionospheric weather and find a great spatiotemporal correlation. TID wave parameters do agree with previous observations and models of thunderstorm‐generated GWs/TIDs; conversely, the wave parameters are an order of magnitude off from modeling results for eclipse‐generated GWs/TIDs.