Novel analysis of a sudden ionospheric disturbance using Schumann resonance measurements

Abstract

A spherical cavity between Earth and the lower ionosphere forms a global resonator for Extremely Low Frequency electromagnetic waves. Constant thunderstorm activity leads to the formation of a resonance field in the cavity, known as the Schumann resonance. Solar flare generated Sudden Ionospheric Disturbances (SID) modify the ionosphere affecting the ground-based radio communication systems. They are also expected to modify radiowave propagation in the cavity. In this paper, the Schumann Resonance spectral decomposition method is used for the first time to study the cavity resonance frequencies during the SID accompanying a strong X2.1 solar flare. We analyzed rapid changes in the frequencies and Q factors of the first five resonance modes using a 5 min timescale. The observed frequency shifts were compared to the ionizing solar flare fluxes in the UV, X-ray, and high-energy rays.

Effects of Energetic Solar Emissions on the Earth–Ionosphere Cavity of Schumann Resonances

“…In Sátori et al 423 (2005), the observations showed that for the X-ray response on the solar cycle timescale, 424 both a reduction in upper characteristic height and a reduction in the upper characteristic 425 scale height produced increases in frequency and Q factor consistent with the measured 426 response. In another recent study, Dyrda et al (2015) document large increases in cavity Q 427 factor associated with a solar flare of short duration. In this study, the separate reduction in 428 lower characteristic height by the energetic proton incursion alone leads to reductions in 429 frequency (shown) and Q factor (not shown) that are broadly consistent with the observed 430 behavior for both the Halloween Day and Bastille Day storms, as well as with earlier 431 observations (and modeling) by Nelson (1967) on solar proton events.…”

ELF Electromagnetic Waves from Lightning: The Schumann Resonances

“…The last topic has received considerable interest over the past few years. Effects primarily on SR frequencies have been detected during cosmic gamma-ray bursts [177,178], solar flares and solar proton events [62,[178][179][180], as well as over the 11-year solar cycle [181][182][183]. Despite these remaining open problems, SR is one of the most promising tools in a variety of fields related to lightning electromagnetics.…”

Modeling Schumann resonances with schupy

“…Hz (Balser and Wagner, 1960;Galejs, 1972;Madden and Thompson, 1965;Nickolaenko and Hayakawa, 2002;Price, 2016;Sátori, 1996;Schumann, 1952;Wait, 1996). They are known as a powerful tool for monitoring lightning activity on regional and global scales (Boldi et al, 2018;Dyrda et al, 2014;Sátori and Zieger, 1999;Williams and Sátori, 2004) and also as an important source of information about the global state of the lowest part of the ionosphere (Dyrda et al, 2015;Kudintseva et al, 2018;Nickolaenko et al, 2012;Roldugin et al, 2003Roldugin et al, , 2004Sátori et al, 2016;Shvets et al, 2017;Williams and Sátori, 2007). Recently, a major interest arose for SRs in connection with gravitational wave detection (Coughlin et al, 2016(Coughlin et al, , 2018Kowalska-Leszczynska et al, 2017).…”