The October 2023 HamSCI Solar Eclipse QSO Party: Preliminary Results

We present preliminary results from the Ham Radio Science Citizen Investigation (HamSCI) Solar Eclipse QSO Party which comprised of several experiments to collect radio observations of the ionosphere’s response to the October 14 2023, annular solar eclipse. The radio experiments were carried-out by citizen scientists, targeting the Very Low Frequency (VLF; 3 – 30 kHz), Medium Frequency (MF; 300 kHz – 3 MHz), and High Frequency (HF; 3 – 30 MHz) portions of the radio spectrum. A similar party was held in conjunction with the August 21, 2017 “Great American” total solar eclipse and was extremely successful. It involved many citizen scientists and generated high impact research results. The 2023 effort was more ambitious than the event in 2017 and serves as a forerunner to the 2024 HamSCI Solar Eclipse QSO Party which will be held in conjunction with the April 8, 2024 total solar eclipse.