Skip to main content

Sferic-based tomography for D-region electron density modeling

David
Richardson
First Author's Affiliation
Georgia Institute of Technology
Abstract text:

While important for communication, the D-region ionosphere is difficult to measure using conventional means. Instead, researchers have historically relied on very-low-frequency and low-frequency (VLF, LF) radio waves, often from lightning or VLF transmitters, to indirectly infer D-region electron density. These methods have become highly capable of producing path-average electron density profiles; however, they typically do not provide great spatial resolution. In this work, we present tomography as a method for producing 3D electron density maps over the SE United States and Gulf of Mexico using lightning emissions known as sferics. Our method achieves approximately 3-4 degree spatial resolution, and is capable of capturing both daytime and nighttime conditions as well as the day-night terminator. Additionally, we show strong agreement between electron density and sunlight fraction during the 2017 "Great American Solar Eclipse" indicating our method can capture disturbed conditions.

Student in poster competition
Poster category
ITMA - Instruments or Techniques for Middle Atmosphere Observations