Nighttime ionospheric enhancements induced by the occurrence of an evening solar eclipse

The solar eclipse on 15 January 2010 traversed Asia and completed its travel on the Shandong Peninsula in China at sunset. Two vertical incidence ionosondes at Wuhan and Beijing and the oblique incidence ionosonde network in North China were implemented to record the ionospheric response to the solar eclipse. Following the initial electron density decrease caused by the eclipse, the ionosphere was characterized by a strong premidnight enhancement, and a subsequent ionospheric decay, and a ~10 h later postmidnight enhancement. Neither geomagnetic disturbance occurred during the eclipse day nor did obvious nighttime peak appear for the 10 day mean of the F2‐layer critical frequency (foF2). The electron density profilogram of the Beijing ionosonde indicates that the two enhancements were the result of the plasma flux downward from the top ionosphere, possibly due to the steep decrease of the ionospheric electron density and plasma temperature during the solar eclipse. The two‐dimensional differential foF2 maps present the regional variations of the nighttime electron density peaks and decay. Both the pre‐ and postmidnight enhancements initially appeared in a belt almost in parallel with the eclipse track and then drifted southward. The different magnitudes of greatest eclipse in the umbra and outside tend to account for the different occurrence times of the plasma flux. The ionospheric decay following the premidnight enhancement is also considered as a consequence of the eclipse shade.