ALTITUDE PROFILES OF ELECTRON

DENSITY DURING LEP EVENTS

FROM VLF MONITORING
OF THE LOWER IONOSPHERE

Desanka uli
1
and Vladimir Srekovi
2



1
Institute of Physics, Belgrade, Serbia, dsulic@phy.bg.ac.yu,
2
Institute of Physics, Belgrade, Serbia, vlada@phy.bg.ac.yu
The Sharjah-Stanford AWESOME VLF Workshop
Sharjah, UAE, Feb 22-24, 2010.
INTRODUCTION
The use of very low frequency (VLF) transmissions
propagating inside the waveguide formed by the Earth
and the lower ionosphere is a well developed technique
for probing conditions within the waveguide.

Measurements of the amplitude and/or phase of VLF
transmissions have provided information on the
variation of the D-region, both spatially and temporally
Nighttime variations in subionospheric
propagation
Nighttime propagation at VLF frequencies is less stable
and predictable than for daytime paths, although sufficient
for communications purposes.
The difference in stability reflects short-term variation in
the nighttime D-region and the lack of a dominant energy
source (c.f. the Sun in daytime).
Reflection heights occur at about 8090 km altitude.
Perturbations on VLF transmissions
Adopted from Lanben et al., 2001
Lightning discharges indirectly produce localized ionospheric
disturbances through lightning induced bursts of precipitation
of energetic radiation belt electrons.
Belgrade
NWC
NSC
ICV
HWU
NAA
GQD DHO
NRK
DESCRIPTION OF EXPERIMENT
NRK Iceland 37.50 kHz
DHO Germany 23.40 kHz
GQD UK 22.10 kHz
NAA USA 24.00 kHz
HWU France 18.30 kHz
ICV
Italy
20.27 kHz
NSC Italy 45.90 kHz
NWC Australia 19.80 kHz
AWESOME SYSTEM was installed at the Institute of Physics
Belgrade (44.50N 20.23E) in June 2008.
The transmitterreceiver distance ranges from 950 to 6600 km.
First step: examination for VLF
signatures of LEP events
Perturbation magnitude DA = -2 [dB]
Perturbation of phase Df = - 16
0

Onset delay Dt = 1.3 [s]
Event duration t
d
= 0.5 [s]
Storm over Europe
Second step: computer modeling
The ionospheric electron density and collision frequency
profiles are given by a standard nighttime ionospheric
model.
The collision frequency profile is given by:

The unperturbed electron density profile is given by:

The model of the ionosphere used in LWPC2.1 produces
an exponential increase in conductivity with height by a
slope, b, in km
-1
and a reference height, h, in km.


11 -0.15 -1
( ) 1.86 10 e [s ]
h
h

=
'
( - ) -3
( ) ( ) 78.57 e [m ]
h h
e
N h h
b
=
Second step: computer modeling
Computer modeling is purposed to interrupt
quantitatively VLF amplitude and phase changes
in terms of approximate location and size of the
associated ionospheric perturbations along GCP.

We model propagation condition in that way to
obtain: DA
num
and Df
num
to be very close with
recorded values of DA
rec
and Df
rec
.

Third step: Gaussian function for vertical
distribution of electron enhancement
Computer modeling yields information about electron
density at reflection heights for ambient and perturbed
ionospheric D region as a pointer for further modeling.

The altitude dependence of the electron density
perturbation is assumed to be Gaussian, centered at h
0.
with a variance .



2 2
0 0
/EXP[(h-h ) / ]
e e
N N =
Event: 12 May 2009
During night 11-12 May 2009, in duration of six hours, LEP
events were recorded on VLF paths.
Station
DA
rec
[dB]
Df
rec

[
0
]
DA
num
[dB]
Df
num
[
0
]
DHO
23.4 kHz
+1.65 -4.6 +1.63 -1.72
GQD
22.1 kHz
+1 -6.2 +1.1 -7.3
1000 10000 100000 1000000 1E7 1E8 1E9
40
50
60
70
80
90
A
l
t
i
t
u
d
e

[
k
m
]
Electron density [m
-3
]
DHO/23.4 kHz - Belgrade 12. May 2009, 00:37:00 UT
h
,
=86.8 km
b=0.47 km
-1
1000 10000 100000 1000000 1E7 1E8 1E9
40
50
60
70
80
90
A
l
t
i
t
u
d
e

[
k
m
]
Electron density [m
-3
]
Profile of electron density for ambiental plasma
12 May 2009, 00:37:00
h
,
= 87 km
b=0. km
-1
n
e
=3.14E
7
[m
-3
]
1000 10000 100000 1000000 1E7 1E8 1E9
40
50
60
70
80
90
A
l
t
i
t
u
d
e

[
k
m
]
Electron density [m
-3
]
GQD/22.1 - Belgrade, 12 May 2009, 00:37:00
h
,
= 86.7 km
b=0. km
-1
Event: 12 May 2009
-5 0 5 10 15 20
44
46
48
50
52
54 GQD DHO
BELGRADE
DHO/23.4 kHz Belgrade
1. VLF signal propagates from transmitter to
receiver through disturbed D region
2. Reflection height moved from 87 km to
86.8 km
3. The enhancement of electron density at
86.8 km is 2.7 10
6
[m
-3
]

GQD/22.1 kHz Belgrade
1. VLF signal propagates 600 km from
transmitter to receiver through disturbed
D region
2. Reflection height moved from 87 km to
86.7 km
3. The enhancement of electron density at
86.7 km is 4 106 [m
-3
]

DHO: distance between transmitter - receiver is
1326 km
GQD: distance between transmitter - receiver is
1948 km
Summary

VLF data were recorded in 2008 and 2009.

LEP events were typically recorded from 18:00 to 04:00UT
when the great circle paths between transmitter and receiver are
partially or wholly in the nighttime sector.

The recorded signals from transmitters in Europe are good base
for studying localized ionization enhancements in the nighttime
D region

By comparing simulated effects of LEP produced ionospheric
disturbances on VLF signal with experimental data we were
able to access the ionospheric electron density profiles most
likely to have been in effect during the observed events.