What are we working on?
Our team's experiment, in particular, aims to record the very low frequency (VLF) waves reflected by the ionosphere (80+ km above earth's surface) to observe activities in that region of the atmosphere. The main interest lies in potential application in understanding VLF, which includes: find location of lightning strikes, detect sprites (upper atmospheric array of red light that can appear during a storm) and detect interference in radio communication (radio broadcast, navigation, etc.) due to absence of daylight. The VLF instrument or VLF receiver itself consist of a magnetic antenna attached to a PCB (printed circuit board) that houses a transformer, a pre-amplifier and a standard music recorder to amplify the recorded waves.
Fun fact: VLF instrument was utilized in the 2017 Total Solar Eclipse to detect the resulting radio interferences created by the Eclipse. This phenomenon is caused by disturbance of the Earths' ionosphere due to the sudden “night” created by the Eclipse.
Fun fact: VLF instrument was utilized in the 2017 Total Solar Eclipse to detect the resulting radio interferences created by the Eclipse. This phenomenon is caused by disturbance of the Earths' ionosphere due to the sudden “night” created by the Eclipse.
Check out our wiki page for more in-depth info!
Members
References:
Image Source: http://www.mouser.com/blog/Portals/11/BarryManz/Figure%202.gif
Image Source: http://www.mouser.com/blog/Portals/11/BarryManz/Figure%202.gif