Temporal properties of magnetospheric line radiation

Magnetospheric line radiation (MLR) events are relatively narrowband VLF signals that sometimes drift in frequency and have been observed in both ground-based and satellite data sets. We present the results of a survey undertaken on the basis of measurements made of MLR events observed at Halley, Antarctica (75°30′S, 26°54′W, L ≈ 4.3), in June, July, September, and December 1995, specifically looking at the temporal properties of Halley MLR events. We find that (1) single MLR lines described in previous papers tend to be comprised of up to 3 lines with widths of 5–10 Hz. (2) The multiple lines show highly variable spacings (e.g., 6), which affects only 8% of the total MLR events in this study. For smaller storms, there is little effect, although MLR events tend not to occur when the geomagnetic activity has been quiet in the previous 48 hours. (7) There is no dependence of MLR occurrence rates upon the instantaneous levels of geomagnetic activity. (8) The average duration of a typical MLR event at Halley is ∼ 30 min, quite similar to previous reports.

Details