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Development of an automatic procedure to estimate the reflection height of tweek atmospherics

Earth, Planets and Space volume 60, pages 837–843 (2008)Cite this article

Abstract

This paper presents an automated procedure to estimate apparent reflection height h (from the cutoff frequency for the first waveguide mode, fc), horizontal propagation distance d, and propagation time Tg of tweek atmospherics. Tweek data recorded at the Kagoshima Observatory (31.48°N, 130.72°E), Japan, were used to evaluate the procedure by comparing the results estimated by the automatic method to those read manually by an operator. The two types of results showed differences (automatic–manual) of +0.58 km, −9.9 Hz, and +3058.9 km for mean h, fc, and d, respectively. The difference in h(fc) was less than the resolution of the fast Fourier transform used to obtain the tweek spectra. These comparisons indicate that the automatic estimation procedure of tweek parameters developed in this paper performs well and is a useful tool for studying long-term height variations of the ionospheric D and lower E regions using very low frequency (VLF) and extremely low frequency (ELF) records observed in Japan over the past 30 years.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Engineering, Chiba University, 1-33 Yayoi-cho, Inage-ku, Chiba, 263-8522, Japan

    Hiroyo Ohya

  2. Solar-Terrestrial Environment Laboratory, Nagoya University, Furo-cho, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya, 464-8601, Japan

    Kazuo Shiokawa & Yoshizumi Miyoshi

Authors
  1. Hiroyo Ohya
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  2. Kazuo Shiokawa
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  3. Yoshizumi Miyoshi
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Correspondence to Hiroyo Ohya.

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Ohya, H., Shiokawa, K. & Miyoshi, Y. Development of an automatic procedure to estimate the reflection height of tweek atmospherics. Earth Planet Sp 60, 837–843 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1186/BF03352835

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/BF03352835

Key words

  • Tweek atmospherics
  • reflection height
  • D-region ionosphere
  • low latitudes