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 | Mr Abhikesh Kumar conducts research with the Atmospheric Weather Electromagnetic System. (Insert): Triangular loop antennas which are used to receive the VLF signals. |
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A research student of the University of the South Pacific, Mr Abhikesh Kumar will be one of the first students to use the newly installed Atmospheric Weather Electromagnetic System for Observation, Modelling and Education (AWESOME) at the University’s School of Engineering and Physics (SEP)in Suva.
This very low frequency (VLF) recording system is designed to record the amplitudes and phases of the VLF signals and the wideband data. This is used to study the effects of various phenomena in the lower atmosphere (D-region of the ionosphere) such as severe thunderstorms, solar flares, geomagnetic storms, earthquakes and solar eclipses.
Mr Kumar, who is a postgraduate student of SEP, will use the AWESOME system to carry out PhD project on ‘Ionospheric D-region Investigation Using ELF-VLF Radio Wave Techniques’.
The ionosphere, he explained, is a part of the upper atmosphere which ranges from about 60 km to 600 km in altitude consisting of charged particles produced by solar radiation.
Among other functions, the ionosphere influences radio wave propagation to distant places on the Earth. These VLF radio waves (3 to 30 kHz) are guided by the spherical waveguide formed by the Earth’s surface and the D-region of the ionosphere and are immensely used in navigational communications, positioning, timings and research, Mr Kumar elaborated.
The AWESOME system, which is not commercially available and is worth about US$20 000, has been provided by Space, Telecommunication and Radio Science (STAR) laboratory of the Stanford University, USA.
The receiver consists of two magnetic field antennae, a GPS antenna, a pre-amplifier, a VLF line receiver and the data recording and analysis software.
Mr Kumar would like to acknowledge the SEP technical team for their help in constructing the system setup.
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