Very low frequency

About: Very low frequency is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 1540 publications have been published within this topic receiving 24233 citations. The topic is also known as: VLF.

Excitation of sidebands due to nonlinear coupling between a VLF transmitter signal and a natural ELF emission

Abstract: Symmetric sidebands are observed in the ionosphere by the AUREOL 3 satellite when it passes at a height of 1,200 km above the VLF transmitter at the Komsomolsk-on-Amur Alpha station (50{degree}5 N, 135{degree} E, frequency 11.90 and 12.65 kHz). The sidebands are about 500 Hz off the carrier frequency of Alpha pulses. They are approximately 20 dB lower than the transmitter signal, and they appear only when ELF natural emission above the local proton gyrofrequency is observed. The data are presented and analyzed. The nonlinear coupling of the VLF transmitter signal to natural ELF emission is invoked to explain the symmetric sidebands. It is shown that the nonlinear current excited by the beats of VLF and ELF waves is strong enough to explain the sideband amplitude.

Effect of a heated patch of auroral ionosphere on VLF-radio wave propagation

Abstract: In the early 1960s, during the period of atmospheric nuclear tests, much theoretical interest developed in the effects of localized ionospheric depressions on the propagation of very low frequency (VLF) radio waves1–4. Similar VLF-propagation effects are also produced by the localized dumping of electrons from the radiation belts after wave–particle interactions5,6. Both nuclear explosions and particle precipitation events are of a transient nature, however, and no experimental study has yet been made to confirm these early theoretical predictions. With the development of a unique high frequency (HF) heating facility near Tromso, Norway, the generation of movable controlled anomalies in the D-region has become possible. We describe here some initial observations, made in Norway, of the effect of such a movable D-region anomaly on the VLF signals received from the 12.1-kHz Omega transmitter at Aldra. The observations confirm the validity of earlier theoretical predictions.

VLF observations of ionospheric disturbances in association with TLEs from the EuroSprite-2007 campaign

Abstract: [1] Two Very Low Frequency (VLF) AWESOME remote sensing systems located at Algiers, Algeria (36.45°N, 3.28°E) and Sebha, Libya (27.02°N, 14.26°E) monitor VLF signal perturbations for evidence of ionospheric disturbances. During the EuroSprite-2007 campaign a number of Transient Luminous Events (TLEs) were captured over the Mediterranean Sea by cameras at Pic du Midi (42.94°N, 0.14°E) and at Centre de Recherches Atmospheriques (CRA) in southwestern France (43.13°N, 0.37°E). The cameras observations are compared to collected VLF AWESOME data. We consider early VLF perturbations observed on 12–13, 17–18 October and 17–18 December, 2007. The data from the two VLF receivers confirm the association between TLEs and early VLF signal perturbations with the perturbations amplitudes dependent on the observation configuration i.e. whether the TLE is near the receiver, near the transmitter, or far from both and the scattering process. The results also reveal that the early VLF perturbations can occur in the absence of a TLE.

Alternative source models of very low frequency events

Abstract: We present alternative source models for very low frequency (VLF) events, previously inferred to be radiation from individual slow earthquakes that partly fill the period range between slow slip events lasting thousands of seconds and low frequency earthquakes (LFE) with durations of tenths of a second. We show that VLF events may emerge from band-pass filtering a sum of clustered, shorter duration, LFE signals, believed to be the components of tectonic tremor. Most published studies show VLF events occurring concurrently with tremor bursts and LFE signals. Our analysis of continuous data from Costa Rica detected VLF events only when tremor was also occurring, which was only seven percent of the total time examined. Using analytic and synthetic models, we show that a cluster of LFE signals produces the distinguishing characteristics of VLF events, which may be determined by the cluster envelope. The envelope may be diagnostic of a single, dynamic, slowly slipping event that propagates coherently over kilometers, or represent a narrowly band-passed version of nearly simultaneous arrivals of radiation from slip on multiple higher stress drop and/or faster propagating slip patches with dimensions of tens of meters (i.e., LFE sources). Temporally clustered LFE sources may be triggered by single or multiple distinct aseismic slip events, or represent the nearly simultaneous chance occurrence of background LFEs. Given the non-uniqueness in possible source durations, we suggest it is premature to draw conclusions about VLF event sources or how they scale.