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AGU: Geophysical Research Letters

 

Index Terms

  • Magnetospheric Physics: Magnetosphere/ionosphere interactions
  • Magnetospheric Physics: Plasma waves and instabilities
  • Electromagnetics: Wave propagation

Abstract

Narrow-band extremely low frequency (ELF) wave phenomena observed at South Pole Station

Hyomin Kim

Space Science Center, University of New Hampshire, Durham, New Hampshire, USA

Marc R. Lessard

Space Science Center, University of New Hampshire, Durham, New Hampshire, USA

James LaBelle

Department of Physics and Astronomy, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, USA

Jay R. Johnson

Plasma Physics Laboratory, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, USA

Extremely low frequency (ELF) magnetic pulsations which show a whistler-like spectral structure have been measured at South Pole Station. An initial survey of the first 70 days of data revealed narrow-band ELF pulsations with slowly varying frequency over time. The narrow-band (a few Hz) signatures maintain their bandwidth as their frequencies decrease from 110 to 50 Hz (and their second harmonics) over the course of 40–90 s. Although the narrow-band ELF waves have a signature somewhat similar to very low frequency (VLF) whistlers, their duration and frequency range are much different from those of whistlers; they also show an unusual characteristic where their frequency often increases before it decreases. These events show a peak in their magnetic local time (MLT) occurrence distribution near the pre-midnight region, a result that contrasts sharply with the only three previously published studies of these waves. Two possibilities of generation mechanism are discussed.

Received 25 May 2005; accepted 17 February 2006; published 29 March 2006.

Citation: Kim, H., M. R. Lessard, J. LaBelle, and J. R. Johnson (2006), Narrow-band extremely low frequency (ELF) wave phenomena observed at South Pole Station, Geophys. Res. Lett., 33, L06109, doi:10.1029/2005GL023638.

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