Title
Nighttime lower ionosphere height estimation from the VLF modal interference distance
Date Issued
01 January 2018
Access level
metadata only access
Resource Type
journal article
Author(s)
Publisher(s)
Elsevier Ltd
Abstract
We have studied the dynamics of the nighttime lower ionosphere height through continuous monitoring of the VLF modal interference distance (so-called distance D). Since the distance D is related to the nighttime propagation modes within the Earth-Ionosphere waveguide, it provides information of the nighttime reflection height (hN). We have used a long-term VLF narrowband database of almost 8 years (2006–2014) from a long transequatorial VLF propagation path between the transmitter NPM (Hawaii, 21.4 kHz) and the receiver ATI (Atibaia, Brazil). Our results show that hN assumes lower values during northern hemisphere wintertime as compared with summertime. By using the Lomb-Scargle periodogram, periodicities around 180 (SAO), 365 (AO) and 800 (QBO) days have been found, being the periodicity around 180 days stronger than all other oscillations. Since these large-scale oscillations are commonly observed in several measurable parameters of the mesosphere-lower thermosphere (MLT) region, our results suggest that the nighttime lower ionosphere can be strongly influenced by the dynamics of the MLT region. The effect of the long-term solar activity on hN is also studied, resulting in high negative correlation (R = −0.91). This effect makes hN decrease around 1.2 km from low to high solar activity. This result suggests a control of the solar radiation on the nighttime lower ionosphere, and hence, on the electron density at night.
Start page
39
End page
47
Volume
167
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Ingeniería aeroespacial
Astronomía
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-85032925339
Source
Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics
ISSN of the container
13646826
Sponsor(s)
This work was supported by the NSFC Grant 41431071 . The VLF data used in this work was provided by the South America VLF Network, SAVNET (access to data by contacting to savnet@craam.mackenzie.br ). The authors thank Emilia Correa for providing the AWESOME network data (access data by contacting correia@craam.mackenzie.br ). The authors thank the DEMETER team for the electric field experiment ICE data ( http://demeter.cnrs-orleans.fr/ ) and the TIMED/SABER team for providing the mesospheric temperature data used in this paper ( http://saber.gats-inc.com/ ). J.S. would like to thank the financial support from the Comision Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo Aeroespacial (CONIDA) . J.P.R. thanks funding agencies FAPESP (Proc. 2006/02979-0 ) and CNPq ( 312066/2016-3 ). A.M. thanks funding agency MACKPESQUISA .
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