title: Using the ionospheric response to the solar eclipse on 20 March 2015 to detect spatial structure in the solar corona.
abstract: The total solar eclipse that occurred over the Arctic region on 20 March 2015 was seen as a partial eclipse over much of Europe. Observations of this eclipse were used to investigate the high time resolution (1 min) decay and recovery of the Earth's ionospheric E-region above the ionospheric monitoring station in Chilton, UK. At the altitude of this region (100 km), the maximum phase of the eclipse was 88.88% obscuration of the photosphere occurring at 9:29:41.5 UT. In comparison, the ionospheric response revealed a maximum obscuration of 66% (leaving a fraction, Φ, of uneclipsed radiation of 34±4%) occurring at 9:29 UT. The eclipse was re-created using data from the Solar Dynamics Observatory to estimate the fraction of radiation incident on the Earth's atmosphere throughout the eclipse from nine different emission wavelengths in the extreme ultraviolet (EUV) and X-ray spectrum. These emissions, having varying spatial distributions, were each obscured differently during the eclipse. Those wavelengths associated with coronal emissions (94, 211 and 335 Å) most closely reproduced the time varying fraction of unobscured radiation observed in the ionosphere. These results could enable historic ionospheric eclipse measurements to be interpreted in terms of the distribution of EUV and X-ray emissions on the solar disc.This article is part of the themed issue 'Atmospheric effects of solar eclipses stimulated by the 2015 UK eclipse'.
authors.affiliation: Department of Meteorology, University of Reading, Earley Gate, PO Box 243, Reading RG6 6BB, UK chris.scott@reading.ac.uk.
authors.forename: C J
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6411-5649
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Scott
authors.affiliation: RAL Space, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Chilton, Oxfordshire OX11 0QX, UK.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bradford
authors.affiliation: H.M. Nautical Almanac Office, UK Hydrographic Office, Admiralty Way, Taunton TA1 2DN, UK.
authors.forename: S A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Bell
authors.affiliation: Zooniverse, c/o Astrophysics Department, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3RH, UK.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wilkinson
authors.affiliation: Department of Meteorology, University of Reading, Earley Gate, PO Box 243, Reading RG6 6BB, UK.
authors.forename: L
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9876-4612
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Barnard
authors.affiliation: North Wales Astronomy Society, Colwyn Bay, UK.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.affiliation: North Wales Astronomy Society, Colwyn Bay, UK.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tudor
keywords: ionosphere; solar eclipse; tomography