Extended lateral heating of the nighttime ionosphere by ground-based VLF transmitters

Abstract

The effects of ground-based very low frequency (VLF) transmitters on the lower ionosphere are investigated. Controlled modulation experiments are performed with the 21.4 kHz, 424 kW VLF transmitter NPM in Lualualei, Hawaii, and physical effects of the NPM transmissions are studied with a subionospherically propagating VLF probe signal. Observed perturbations to the probe signal are consistent neither with expectations from transmitter-induced electron precipitation nor to off-path scattering from a concentrated heating region near the transmitter but rather appear to be the result of scattering from extended lateral heating of the ionosphere by the NPM transmitter. A large-scale computational modeling framework confirms theoretically that this form of ionospheric heating can account for the observed probe signal modulations, establishing that the lateral extent of ionospheric heating due to VLF transmitters is several thousand kilometers, significantly greater than previously recognized.