Effects in geospace during partial solar eclipses over Kharkiv

The results of studying the effects in the ionosphere caused by the partial solar eclipses (SEs) on 3 October 2005 and 29 March 2006 are presented. The data were obtained by the Kharkiv incoherent scatter radar (ISR) experiment, which is unique in Central Europe. The SEs caused a series of complicated dynamical processes in the ionosphere at altitudes of 200–1500 km. As expected, the behaviour of the ionosphere quantitatively resembled a short time reconstruction of the medium to night-time conditions. At the maximum phase of the SEs considered, a decrease in electron density N m in the F2-region maximum and an increase in the height z m of the F2-region maximum were observed. The eclipses also caused significant changes in the thermal and dynamical regimes of the ionosphere and were accompanied by an increase in the relative density of hydrogen ions at altitudes of 900–1200 km.