The effect of the 2017 solar eclipse in the ionospheric total electron content

Using 15-second RINEX files inside the totality path, I calculated the Total Electron Content (TEC) at each station-satellite pair for each epoch recorded during the day of the 2017 solar eclipse. These calculations result in TEC observations at the ionospheric piercing points (IPP), the intersection of the station-satellite line-of-sight (LOS) and the peak electron density of the ionospheric F layer at a height of ~300 km. Using the estimated TEC at each IPP, I produced a video showing the TEC change during the passage of the umbra and penumbra of the eclipse over North America over a period of one hour. The video shows that as the moon’s shadow passes and the sunlight is blocked, the TEC drops due to the recombination of the ionized particles. More information available at the UNAVCO Google+ webpage: https://plus.google.com/u/0/112042426109504523574/posts/bPJ2f7exmPk