Dynamics of Air Temperature Changes in the Atmospheric Boundary Layer during the Solar Eclipse of March 29, 2006

Abstract

The data of measurements of air temperature profiles in the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) during the total solar eclipse on March 29, 2006, in Kislovodsk and at the High-Mountain Scientific Station (HMSS) on the central shadow line are presented. The solar eclipse lasted from 2:08 p.m. to 4:27 p.m. local time; the total phase of the eclipse began at 3:15 p.m. and lasted 2 min 32 s. In developing the results we obtained in our previous work, we compared the data on air temperature profiles at two points, Kislovodsk and the HMSS. The influence of local conditions has been studied. It is shown that local conditions significantly affect both the amplitude of atmospheric pressure pulsations caused by a solar eclipse and their phase, as well as the nature of the change in the spectral density of air temperature with height in the range of periods corresponding to the duration of the solar eclipse. Based on the measurements of temperature profiles, the fluctuations of the atmospheric pressure difference at the level of the earth’s surface and at a certain height up to which the temperature profiles were measured equal to 600 m, were reconstructed, caused by a solar eclipse, in coordinates: height–time has different trajectories in the case of Kislovodsk and the HMSS. The difference in the trajectories of air temperature minima in Kislovodsk and at the HMSS determines both different delays in pressure minima relative to the beginning of the eclipse and time delays between surface pressure fluctuations at observation points as a whole. Also, a new method is proposed for determining the speed of ascending air currents using data on the altitude dependence of the time of reaching a minimum in temporal temperature variations caused by a solar eclipse. The changes in the spectral density of air are compared with height, the amplitude of the reconstructed atmospheric pressure pulsations in Kislovodsk and at the HMSS, and the speed of ascending air currents.