The electromagnetic wave propagation velocity at low radio frequencies is an important input parameter for lightning location systems that use time of arrival (TOA) method. This velocity is normally fixed at or near the speed of light. However, this study finds that the radio waves from two submarine communication transmitters at 20.9 kHz and 23.4 kHz exhibit phase propagation velocities that are ~0.51% slower and ~0.64% faster than the speed of light as a result of sky wave contributions and ground effects. Therefore, a novel technique with a variable phase propagation velocity is implemented for the first time in the TOA method and applied to electric field recordings with a long‐baseline lightning location system that consists of four radio receivers in western Europe. The lightning locations inferred from variable velocities improve the accuracy of locations inferred from a fixed velocity by ~0.89–1.06 km when compared to the lightning locations reported by the UK MetOffice. The normal distributions of the observed phase propagation velocities in small geographic areas are not centered at the speed of light. Consequently, representative velocities can be calculated for many small geographic areas to produce a velocity map over central France where numerous lightning discharges occurred. This map reflects the impact of sky waves and ground effects on the calculation of lightning locations as a result of the network configuration. It is concluded that the use of variable phase propagation velocities mitigates the influence of sky waves and ground effects in long‐range lightning location networks.

Analysis of very low frequency lightning waveforms, or radio sferics, can contribute to research into lower ionosphere perturbations and the corresponding atmospheric chemistry. Lightning waveforms can also be characterized on the basis of their propagation distance from receivers in order to study radio wave propagation. A bank of average waveforms, that is, the waveform bank, <1,000 km with a spatial resolution of 10 km has been produced, based on the lightning waveforms recorded in Europe on 8 August 2014. These average lightning waveforms at different distances exhibit a sequence of consecutive maxima resulting from ionospheric reflections, named sky waves. The spectral waveform bank shows a sequence of consecutive modal maxima at different frequencies depending on distance. The Hilbert transform is applied to produce complex lightning waveforms, which provide additional information to the original real waveforms alone, that is, the instantaneous phase and frequency. The time differences calculated from the instantaneous phases of complex lightning waveforms give the minimum arrival time difference error when compared to other analyzed signal processing methods. The derivative of the instantaneous phase, that is, the instantaneous frequency, represents the amplitude‐weighted average of frequency components at maximum amplitude according to theory and numerical simulation. In real experiments, the instantaneous frequency can be understood as the median value of the real frequency distribution calculated at maximum amplitude. It is found that the instantaneous frequencies at maximum amplitudes are distance dependent. This finding might enable the development of a novel method to determine lightning distances in the future.

The man‐made narrowband very low frequency transmission from Rhauderfehn, Germany, is studied using high accuracy, microsecond time resolution measurements in Bath, UK. The high time resolution enables a novel comparison of the measurements with a detailed simulation of the transmitted signal. It is found that the wave propagation frequency response exhibits nonlinear amplitude and phase changes with frequency over the narrow transmission bandwidth during the time of the measurements (13 May 2011 15:00:03–15:00:09 UTC). The high time resolution also enables measurements of fast variabilities in the wave propagation <5 ms. The fast propagation variabilities are likely to originate from integrated ionospheric variability over the propagation path or fast ionospheric processes. The wave propagation frequency response measurement has potential benefits in the study of the lower ionosphere, in particular during highly variable perturbations such as those caused by lightning.

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The electromagnetic spectrum at low frequencies from ∼3 to 300 kHz is dominated by impulses from lightning discharges and anthropogenic radio transmissions used for communication. Electromagnetic waves generated in near‐Earth space exhibit generally smaller amplitudes that are attenuated when travelling through the ionosphere before they can be observed at high and midlatitudes. Electromagnetic waves with yet smaller amplitudes contribute to the overall electromagnetic energy trapped within the Earth‐ionosphere cavity. At this point, the electromagnetic waves from all possible sources blend into an unstructured continuum radiation near the instrumental noise floor, which is often considered to be a fundamental limit to scientific discovery. As a result, the sources of continuum radiation have been little studied and are essentially unknown. Here we show how low‐frequency continuum radiation is detected and discriminated against known radio sources and instrumental noise by use of rigorous criteria inferred from novel precision measurements with an array of radio receivers. In particular, it is found that coherent continuum radiation from intermittent radio transmitters exhibits electric field strengths 0.5–0.7 μV/m, which are almost 2 orders of magnitude smaller when compared to the noise floor of the radio receivers ∼25 μV/m. Another part of the continuum radiation is found at local zenith above the array when it is caused by random instrumental noise. The results exemplify the possibility to extract sources from continuum radiation to study their origin and physical properties, which can contribute to an improved understanding of the impact of space weather and solar variability on the Earth's upper atmosphere.