Solar Eclipses during the OMI Mission

Introduction
OPF Parameters
Solar Eclipse Maps
Solar eclipse of 2004-04-19
Solar eclipse of 2004-10-14
Solar eclipse of 2005-04-08
Solar eclipse of 2005-10-03
Solar eclipse of 2006-03-29
Solar eclipse of 2006-09-22
Solar eclipse of 2007-03-19
Solar eclipse of 2007-09-11
Solar eclipse of 2008-02-07
Solar eclipse of 2008-08-01
Solar eclipse of 2009-01-26
Solar eclipse of 2009-07-22
Solar eclipse of 2010-01-15
Solar eclipse of 2010-07-11
Solar eclipse of 2011-01-04
Solar eclipse of 2011-06-01
Solar eclipse of 2011-07-01
Solar eclipse of 2011-11-25
Solar eclipse of 2012-05-20
Solar eclipse of 2012-11-13
Solar eclipse of 2013-05-10
Solar eclipse of 2013-11-03
Solar eclipse of 2014-04-29
Solar eclipse of 2014-10-23
Solar eclipse of 2015-03-20
Solar eclipse of 2015-09-13
Solar eclipse of 2016-03-09
Solar eclipse of 2016-09-01
Solar eclipse of 2017-02-26
Solar eclipse of 2017-08-21
Solar eclipse of 2018-02-15
Solar eclipse of 2018-07-13
Solar eclipse of 2018-08-11
Solar eclipse of 2019-01-06
Solar eclipse of 2019-07-02
Solar eclipse of 2019-12-26
Solar eclipse of 2020-06-21
Solar eclipse of 2020-12-14

Introduction

Effect of a Solar eclipse on OMI data

OMI measures backscattered sunlight from the Earth's atmosphere in order to derive level 2 products. During solar eclipses the amount of incoming sunlight will be attenuated by the Moon's surface obscuring the Sun's disk, artificially changing the calculated amount of backscattering. Because the amount of incident solar radiation is not measured continuously, these events will introduce errors in the derived products.

Solar eclipse flagging

The data-processor has the capability to raise warning flags in case of solar eclipse events. These warning flags are are set by the GDPS, based on solar eclipse prediction data in the OPF. The number of parameters for the eclipse-flagging in the OPF is limited. For each event, a start-date, end-date, start-time and end-time can be supplied. In addition, space is reserved for the four coordinates of a rectangular box which describes the geo-location coverage of the penumbral shadow during the total event. Even though the penumbral shadow does not totally cover this box continuously over the duration of the eclipse, all data will be given the Solar Eclipse warning flag bit in the Ground Pixel Quality flags. The OPF start-time of a solar eclipse was chosen to be the time where the penumbral shadow has first contacts the Earth. This time is also known as the P1-time. The OPF end-time of the event was chosen to be the last moment of contact between the penumbral shadow and the Earth. This point is also referred to as the P4-time, all these times are given as UTC-times.
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OPF Parameters

Start Date	Start Time	End Date	End Time	West	East	South	North
[UTC]	[UTC]	[UTC]	[UTC]	[degrees]	[degrees]	[degrees]	[degrees]
2004_04_19T	11:29:56.80000Z	2004_04_19T	15:38:36.00000Z	-180.000	180.000	-89.0000	-7.0000
2004-10-14T	00:54:34.40000Z	2004-10-14T	05:04:17.80000Z	-180.000	180.000	1.0000	89.0000
2005-04-08T	17:51:16.90000Z	2005-04-08T	23:20:25.80000Z	-180.000	180.000	-89.0000	40.0000
2005-10-03T	07:35:31.70000Z	2005-10-03T	13:27:50.60000Z	-180.000	180.000	-42.0000	89.0000
2006-03-29T	07:36:49.10000Z	2006-03-29T	12:45:41.40000Z	-180.000	180.000	-38.0000	89.0000
2006-09-22T	08:39:53.40000Z	2006-09-22T	14:40:09.70000Z	-180.000	180.000	-89.0000	38.0000
2007-03-19T	00:38:20.50000Z	2007-03-19T	04:24:56.60000Z	-180.000	180.000	4.0000	89.0000
2007-09-11T	10:25:41.70000Z	2007-09-11T	14:36:26.70000Z	-180.000	180.000	-89.0000	-6.0000
2008-02-07T	01:38:25.20000Z	2008-02-07T	06:11:48.20000Z	-180.000	180.000	-89.0000	4.0000
2008-08-01T	08:04:00.40000Z	2008-08-01T	12:38:22.70000Z	-180.000	180.000	-10.0000	89.0000
2009-01-26T	04:56:31.90000Z	2009-01-26T	11:00:35.00000Z	-180.000	180.000	-86.0000	44.0000
2009-07-21T	23:58:12.60000Z	2009-07-22T	05:12:19.20000Z	-180.000	180.000	-54.0000	63.0000
2010-01-15T	04:05:20.10000Z	2010-01-15T	10:07:27.50000Z	-180.000	180.000	-36.0000	89.0000
2010-07-11T	17:09:34.90000Z	2010-07-11T	21:57:09.20000Z	-180.000	180.000	-89.0000	17.0000
2011-01-04T	06:40:04.10000Z	2011-01-04T	11:00:47.40000Z	-180.000	180.000	5.00000	89.0000
2011-06-01T	19:25:09.40000Z	2011-06-01T	23:06:52.60000Z	-180.000	180.000	19.0000	89.0000
2011-07-01T	07:53:45.60000Z	2011-07-01T	09:22:34.60000Z	-19.000	71.000	-84.0000	-47.0000
2011-11-25T	04:23:08.90000Z	2011-11-25T	08:17:08.70000Z	-180.000	180.000	-89.0000	-10.000
2012-05-20T	20:56:00.20000Z	2012-05-21T	02:49:15.70000Z	-180.000	180.000	-26.0000	89.0000
2012-11-13T	19:37:51.80000Z	2012-11-14T	00:45:27.80000Z	-180.000	180.000	-86.0000	30.0000
2013-05-10T	21:25:10.00000Z	2013-05-11T	03:25:22.60000Z	-180.000	179.000	-77.0000	37.0000
2013-11-03T	10:04:33.70000Z	2013-11-03T	15:28:21.00000Z	-180.000	179.000	-32.0000	80.0000
2014-04-29T	03:52:38.10000Z	2014-04-29T	08:14:27.70000Z	-180.000	179.000	-89.0000	-8.00000
2014-10-23T	19:37:30.40000Z	2014-10-23T	23:51:35.70000Z	-180.000	179.000	14.0000	89.0000
2015-03-20T	07:40:50.60000Z	2015-03-20T	11:50:10.60000Z	-180.000	179.000	7.00000	89.0000
2015-09-13T	04:41:35.30000Z	2015-09-13T	09:06:20.20000Z	-180.000	179.000	-89.0000	-15.0000
2016-03-09T	23:19:18.90000Z	2016-03-10T	04:34:53.90000Z	-180.000	179.000	-34.0000	71.0000
2016-09-01T	06:13:05.40000Z	2016-09-01T	12:00:37.40000Z	-180.000	179.000	-81.0000	31.0000
2017-02-26T	12:10:44.80000Z	2017-02-26T	17:35:58.40000Z	-180.000	179.000	-89.0000	23.0000
2017-08-21T	15:46:48.30000Z	2017-08-21T	21:04:19.70000Z	-180.000	179.000	-25.0000	89.0000
2018-02-15T	18:55:45.80000Z	2018-02-15T	22:47:03.40000Z	-180.000	179.000	-89.0000	-22.0000
2018-07-13T	01:48:17.50000Z	2018-07-13T	04:13:43.10000Z	-180.000	179.000	-89.0000	-34.0000
2018-08-11T	08:02:04.80000Z	2018-08-11T	11:30:38.70000Z	-180.000	179.000	19.0000	89.0000
2019-01-06T	23:34:01.80000Z	2019-01-07T	03:48:44.10000Z	-180.000	179.000	13.0000	89.0000
2019-07-02T	16:55:08.10000Z	2019-07-02T	21:50:33.80000Z	-180.000	179.000	-89.0000	16.0000
2019-12-26T	02:29:43.50000Z	2019-12-26T	08:05:36.10000Z	-180.000	179.000	-31.0000	89.0000
2020-06-21T	03:45:53.80000Z	2020-06-21T	09:33:57.50000Z	-180.000	179.000	-50.0000	66.0000
2020-12-14T	13:33:47.70000Z	2020-12-14T	18:52:59.80000Z	-180.000	179.000	-81.0000	39.0000

Solar eclipse plots

For each event up to the year 2020 the path of the penumbral shadow over the Earth has been calculated. From this path, the attenuation of the incident sun light for each geolocation can be calculated. The figures below show the maximum fractional attenuation of the sun light for each point on Earth during the event.