Simulation of Gravity Wave D-region disturbance and its effect on the LWPC simulated VLF signal

Abstract

Abstract. In this work we show the result of the numerical simulation of the gravity waves (GWs) D region disturbance. Effectively, using the Glukhov-Pasko-Inan (GPI) model of the electron density in the D region we were figured out the response of the electron density due to gravity wave neutral atmosphere oscillation. As a consequence to the D region disturbance, the electron density sometimes increases when the neutral atmosphere density decreases and vice versa. This behavior was interpreted by the decreases or increases of ionization rate by chemical loss process. In a second simulation work, we used the Long Wave Propagation Capability (LWPC) code to simulate the Very Low Frequency (VLF) signal when the gravity wave disturbance crossed the VLF path. The effect of the disturbance is to decrease the VLF signal reflection height below the ambient altitude (87 km) when the electron density increases. On the other hand and when the electron density drops, the VLF reflection altitude increased higher than 87 km.