Short-time variation in atmospheric pressure, humidity, and temperature during the annular solar eclipse of December 2019 in Sri Lanka
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Abstract
Considering the annular solar eclipse on December 26, 2019, atmospheric pressure, humidity, and temperature were investigated at the ground level in two locations in Sri Lanka: Jaffna (9.6897°N, 80.0232°E, with 93.4% of solar disk coverage) and Colombo (6.9008°N, 79.8602°E, with 85.5% of solar disk coverage). A temperature drop was recorded at both sites, Jaffna and Colombo, with the lowest temperature values observed in 11 and 8 min, respectively, after the maximum eclipse phase. The temperature dropped by 4.2℃ and 0.8℃ with average falling rates of 0.0425°C/min and 0.0082℃/min in Jaffna and Colombo, respectively. The relative humidity increased by 12.0% and 1.1% with average increasing rates of 0.12 and 0.01%/min in Jaffna and Colombo, respectively. The Jaffna site reported an increasing trend in atmospheric pressure until the maximum eclipse phase; the maximum pressure occurred near the full phase during the annularity and started decreasing a few minutes after the full phase. The Colombo pressure sensor showed no such variation.
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