Electromagnetic Field in the Upper Ionosphere From ELF Ground‐Based Transmitter

Abstract

The feasibility of detection of electromagnetic response in the upper ionosphere to ground large‐scale extremely low frequency (ELF) transmitters (e.g., submarine communication systems) by low‐orbiting satellites is discussed. Several times when the DEMETER satellite (660 km) was in the vicinity of the ELF transmitter on the Kola Peninsula, the electric and magnetic sensors operating in a burst mode detected a narrowband 82‐Hz emission. The same emission associated with the ELF transmitter was observed by a ground‐based magnetometer. We modeled the rate of the ELF wave energy leakage into the upper ionosphere from an oscillating 82‐Hz linear current with an infinite length suspended above a high‐resistive ground. A realistic altitudinal profile of the plasma parameters has been reconstructed with the use of the IRI ionospheric model. The modeled amplitudes and polarization of electromagnetic response of the upper ionosphere are in reasonable agreement with the properties of emission recorded by the satellite.

Electromagnetic pollution of near-Earth space by power line emission

“…A sharp increase in the number and intensity of PLE/PLHR events in space occurred in 2009, when projects on the transition to high-voltage (HV) and ultrahigh-voltage (UHV) power lines began to develop rapidly [Wu et al, 2014]. The geographic maps of the distribution of the occurrence rate of PLE at 50 Hz (top) and 60 Hz (bottom) recorded by the DEMETER satellite (Figure 6) exhibit good agreement with the world map of electric power consumption [Němec et al, 2015]. These observations demonstrate that over industrialized regions the PLE intensity is well above the average level.…”

“…PLHR is a rather weak and rare event. For example, during the DEMETER mission [Němec et al, 2006[Němec et al, , 2007[Němec et al, , 2008Parrot et al, 2014], only 88 PLHR events were observed over a four-year period. This review does not cover PLHR.…”

“…Here we focus our attention on the results of PLE observations made by the Chibis-M microsatellite [Dudkin et al, 2014[Dudkin et al, , 2015Korepanov et al, 2014Korepanov et al, , 2015 and by the DEMETER satellite [Němec et al, 2015], and also delve into approaches to modeling PLE propagation through the ionosphere to satellite heights.…”

“…Although PLE events were detected in early satellite experiments in low Earth orbits (LEOs), statistics on satellite detection of them is still small. Until recently, PLE events have been observed by the satellites ISIS-1 and ISIS-2 (with a perigee/apogee 578-3526 km) [Park, Helliwell, 1981;Rodger et al, 1995], and C/NOFS (401-852 km) [Pfaff et al, 2014]. These emissions were recorded by electric antennas 73, 18.7 (ISIS-1, 2), and 20 m (C/NOFS) long.…”

Modeling ELF Electromagnetic Field in the Upper Ionosphere From Power Transmission Lines

“…For example, 60 Hz signals resulting from the United States‐Canada electric power systems were reliably recorded in Antarctica (Koloskov & Yampolski, 2009). Given that power lines are widespread, the leakage into the ionosphere of these man‐made ELF emissions might be expected in the same manner in which a small fraction of the power associated with Schumann resonances (Simoes et al., 2012) or submarine communication transmitters (Pilipenko et al., 2019) has been found to penetrate into the upper ionosphere. Despite their known frequency signatures and source locations, a direct detection in space of 50/60 Hz emissions associated with terrestrial power lines is not very common.…”