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ISSN 2415-3400 (Online)
ISSN 1028-821X (Print)

PRELIMINARY RESULTS OF MONITORING THE LOWER IONOSPHERE BASED ON THE ANALYSIS OF TWEEK-ATMOSPHERICS

heading: 
RADIOWAVE PROPAGATION, RADIOLOCATION AND REMOTE SENSING
Shvets, AV, Kryvonos, AP
Organization: 

O. Ya. Usikov Institute for Radiophysics and Electronics of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine
12, Proskura st., Kharkov, 61085, Ukraine
E-mail: alexander_shvets@ukr.net
https://doi.org/10.15407/rej2017.03.014
Language: Russian
Abstract: 

At present, the lower ionosphere is the least studied region of the ionosphere. The altitude range and the low concentration of charged particles limit the possibilities of its investigation using radiosondes, balloons, rockets, and satellites. For studies of the lower ionosphere, tweek-atmospherics (tweeks) – ELF–VLF radio waves excited by lightning discharges in the Earth-ionosphere waveguide are used in this work. The authors proposed a method of automatic identification and analysis of tweeks. On the basis of analysis of tweeks recorded in August 2014, the relationship between the regular variations in the height of the ionosphere with the change in the solar zenith angle, which determines the main source of ionization - the radiation of the geocorona at night, was investigated. It is shown that with an increase in the height of the lower boundary of the ionosphere, the rate of tweeks increases, which is associated with a decrease in losses in the ionosphere. The effect of the rise of the lower boundary of the ionosphere during a geomagnetic storm of moderate intensity was detected. Thus, the diagnostic capabilities of the proposed method are demonstrated, which makes it possible to locate thunderstorm foci and to reveal variations in the height of the Earth-ionosphere waveguide along the propagation paths of VLF radio waves excited by lightning discharges from different foci.
Keywords: Earth-ionosphere waveguide, ELF-VLF radio waves, geocorona, geomagnetic storm, lightning location, lower ionosphere, tweek-atmospherics

Manuscript submitted 03.07.2017
PACS 94.20.ws, 94.20.de
Radiofiz. elektron. 2017, 22(3): 14-22

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