STRATOSPHERIC CIRCULATION RESPONSE TO A SOLAR ECLIPSE,
Abstract
The new knowledge gained from Meteorological Rocket Network systems that the stratospheric circulation responds to diurnally impressed solar heating with a temperature variation of approximately 15C and a wind variation of approximately 30 meters per second peak to peak at the stratopause has led to greater interest in other sources of perturbation in this upper atmospheric region. A solar eclipse exhibits physical input characteristics which are sufficiently different from diurnal variations in space and time scales to make its analysis of value in establishing the overall response characteristics of the stratospheric circulation. Employing certain assumptions and using the available data on diurnal variations, a model of the stratospheric temperature and circulation structure associated with an eclipse shadow has evolved. In particular, this model was designed to represent the situation which will occur in the morning hours over Tartagal, Argentina, on 12 November 1966. The results of this study indicate that the diurnal temperature variation will be locally reduced by approximately 4 degrees Celsius along the totality path and that a local circulation system of several thousand kilometers diameter will be set up around the path of the lunar shadow with peak winds of the order of several meters per second. Such a perturbation in the stratospheric circulation can probably be observed with only relatively minor adjustments to available meteorological rocket systems. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 1966
- Accession Number
- AD0642858
Entities
People
- Willis L. Webb
Organizations
- Atmospheric Sciences Laboratory