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Measurements of limb-darkening effect and solar radiation during the partial solar eclipse of 21 June 2020 at Varanasi

Journal of Earth System Science volume 131, Article number: 57 (2022) Cite this article

Abstract

In this study, we have for the first time discussed the effect of a partial solar eclipse on limb-darkening effect, incoming solar radiation and atmospheric temperature at the surface with the help of a solar telescope with the back-end instrument as the charge-coupled device camera and data of net radiometer installed at the Department of Physics, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India. We have also calculated the eclipse parameters, magnitude and obscuration. A partial eclipse occurred at Varanasi on 21 June 2020 from 10:30:51 am to 02:04:01 pm (IST) for 3 h 33 min. The path of this rare solstice ring of fire was of long duration. Observation of six phases of the partial solar eclipse was recorded and it showed a variation in the intensity over the sun’s diameter from one limb to another at different phases of the eclipse. We also estimated the limb-darkening coefficient for six phases of the partial solar eclipse. The average value of the solar limb-darkening coefficient was found to be about 0.61. The observed values of the limb-darkening coefficient; incoming solar radiation and atmospheric temperature at the surface are consistent with earlier studies.

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Acknowledgements

The study is partially supported by SERB, New Delhi for the CRG project (file no. CRG/2019/000573) and also partially by the Institute of Eminence (IoE) (scheme no. 6031) to BHU, Varanasi. We are thankful to the referee for the thoughtful comments and suggestions that helped us to improve the quality of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Atmospheric Research Laboratory, Department of Physics, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, 221 005, India

    Shivam Chaubey, Gaurav Singh & Abhay Kumar Singh

  2. DST-Mahamana Centre of Excellence in Climate Change Research, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India

    Shivam Chaubey & Abhay Kumar Singh

  3. Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences, Manora Peak, Nainital, 263 002, India

    Gaurav Singh

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  1. Shivam Chaubey
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Contributions

Shivam Chaubey: Writing – original draft preparation, software. Gaurav Singh: Methodology, conceptualisation, data curation, plotting and editing. Abhay Kumar Singh: Writing – reviewing, supervision and editing.

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Correspondence to Abhay Kumar Singh.

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Communicated by Suresh Babu

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Chaubey, S., Singh, G. & Singh, A.K. Measurements of limb-darkening effect and solar radiation during the partial solar eclipse of 21 June 2020 at Varanasi. J Earth Syst Sci 131, 57 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12040-021-01799-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12040-021-01799-5

Keywords

  • Solar eclipse
  • solar radiation
  • eclipse obscuration
  • eclipse magnitude
  • limb-darkening effect