Contribuição ao estudo de distúrbios ionosféricos utilizando a técnica de VLF

• Ano de defesa: 2015
• Autor(a) principal: Cruz, Edith Liliana Macotela
• Orientador(a): Raulin, Jean Pierre
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Tipo de acesso: Acesso aberto
• Idioma: por
• Instituição de defesa: Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie
• Palavras-chave em Português: técnica de VLF; baixa ionosfera; condutividade elétrica; perturbações ionosféricas
• Palavras-chave em Inglês: VLF technique; lower ionosphere; electric conductivity; ionospheric disturbances
• Área do conhecimento CNPq: CNPQ::CIENCIAS EXATAS E DA TERRA::GEOCIENCIAS
• Link de acesso: http://dspace.mackenzie.br/handle/10899/24123

The Earth-Low ionosphere system behaves as a waveguide for the propagation of radio waves of very low frequency (VLF). If in this system the electrical conductivity of its boundaries is perturbed, the propagation of the VLF waves will also be perturbed. There is a diversity of transient physical phenomena that are able to alter significantly the electrical conductivity of the lower ionosphere. The disturbance in this region is able to produce phase and amplitude variations with respect to a quiescent level of these waves. The aim of the present work is to study the response of the lower ionosphere to phenomena originated in the Earth, our solar system or even much farther away. For this purpose, VLF data obtained by SAVNET (South American VLF Network) during the solar cycle 24 was used. It was found that the correction by both the length of the path illuminated by the flare and the reference height coefficient allows normalizing the effect of ionospheric disturbances observed in the VLF phase signals that propagated along trajectories with a north-south or west-east direction, separately. The lower limit of detection for disturbances caused by the X-ray radiation excess is 1.8×10−9 Jm-2 and 2.6×10−7 Jm-2 for the nighttime and daytime lower ionosphere, respectively. Changes in the periodicities of the VLF signal, in the infrasonic band, were observed between 6 and 14 days prior to the seismic events, of magnitude 7, occurred in Haiti in 2010 and in Peru in 2011. Increases in the periodicities of the order of few minutes were observed when the shadow of the total solar eclipse of 2010 was moving on the Earth. Due to the solar eclipse the ionospheric reference height increased in ~3 km and the electron density decreased in 60 % of its quiescent level. Finally, it was found that the effective recombination coefficient, for 80 km height, was 1.1×10−5 cm-3s-1 during the time of the eclipse, which is an intermediate value between the diurnal and nocturnal conditions.