Document Type

Article

Publication Date

4-8-2004

Publication Title

Annales Geophysicae

Department

Department of Physics and Astronomy

Abstract

For over a decade, Dartmouth College has oper- ated programmable radio receivers at multiple high-latitude sites covering the frequency range 100–5000 kHz with about a 1-s resolution. Besides detecting radio emissions of auro- ral origin, these receivers record characteristics of the iono- spheric propagation of natural and man-made signals, docu- menting well-known effects, such as the diurnal variation in the propagation characteristics of short and long waves, and also revealing more subtle effects. For example, at auroral zone sites in equinoctial conditions, the amplitudes of dis- tant transmissions on MF/HF frequencies are often enhanced by a few dB just before they fade away at dawn. The po- larization and/or direction of the arrival of ionospherically propagating signals in the lower HF range (3–5 MHz) show a consistent variation between pre-midnight, post-midnight, and pre-dawn conditions. As is well known, magnetic storms and substorms dramatically affect ionospheric propagation; data from multiple stations spanning the invariant latitude range 67–79◦ reveal spatial patterns of propagation charac- teristics associated with magnetic storms and substorms. For example, in the hours preceding many isolated substorms, fa- vorable propagation conditions occur at progressively lower latitudes as a function of time preceding the substorm onset. For some of these effects, explanations follow readily from elementary ionospheric physics, but understanding others re- quires further investigation.

DOI

10.5194/angeo-22-1705-2004

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