Eclipse Festival Updates: CME, LOL

[Kristina Collins]

Hi all,

Data collection is going well so far. You can view the uploaded files here. 

Two updates below about interesting things to look for over the next few days. As always, please keep those radios going and let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks and 73,

-Kristina KD8OXT

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LOL On the Air for the Eclipse

Keep an ear out for the Argentinian time station LOL, which will start up soon on 10 MHz. 

Juan Carlos Parra LU9DO writes: "I just contacted the LOL manager and they finished booting the time drivers. We agree that tomorrow Friday 11th from 06.00 to 12.00 UTC they go on the air for verifications. From Sunday 13th at 03:00 UTC until Tuesday 15th at 03:00 UTC it will be on the air continuously. After, they continue with the usual hours. So, during eclipse time LOL will be on the air!"

Coronal Mass Ejection

Here's a note from the HamSCI mailing list yesterday. Dr. Phil Erickson W1PJE on the ionospheric effects of the CME: 

"CME arrived at the L1 Lagrange point (out in front of Earth on the Sun line) at 0130 UTC today with a southward Bz in the solar wind (more geoeffective than a northward Bz). Time from the L1 point projecting forward to impacts on the magnetic field is typically 45 to 60 minutes, so I'd guess effects began at 0230 UTC today. Kp is already 4 for 00 - 03 UTC today, which agrees with increase in magnetic activity, but the auroral boundaries have not expanded yet and I don't see anything on the Sodankyla magnetometer in Finland. There could be still a potential for significant nighttime ionospheric structuring that, if it occurred, can disrupt transcontinental links. Relative strength of this disturbance will need to wait for more data as the hours go on.

Tomorrow, the ionosphere could exhibit a positive phase response = increased electron density in the noontime / afternoon sector, or negative phase response = reduced electron density in daytime. These two limits are driven by two different physical pathways (change in neutral composition = increasing loss and decreased density; electrodynamic effects = the ionosphere moves upwards where its decay slows so electron density overall increases). They will of course have different HF propagation consequences: higher electron density allows higher frequency bands to open compared to quiet conditions, while lower electron density will close these bands down compared to quiet conditions."

He added the following regarding data analysis for the Eclipse Festival:

"You need a good pre-storm baseline (or a baseline far enough removed from the storm that things have relaxed back to quiet state).  So try and use your existing data to examine the quiet typical Dopplers, and then look for deviations over the next several days.  We can tell you after the fact where the storm evolved in time by examining the Dst index (equatorial magnetic field reduction; measures intensity of the ring current; you can identify storm expansion, main phase, and recovery phase)."

I'm working on analysis code; further bulletins to follow.