Mantikas, Georgios (2002) A sudden ionospheric disturbances monitor. Masters thesis, Lancaster University.
Full text not available from this repository.Abstract
Sudden Ionospheric Disturbances are the immediate effects of solar flares, which impact the earth, and affect the upper atmospheric layers used for telecommunications. The aim of this project was to research, design and build a sudden ionospheric Disturbance Monitor for amplitude and phase perturbations occurring in the D-layer of the Ionosphere. For the design and implementation of this system an approach including research of various resources such as Internet, books, articles and journals was used in order to devise the system’s specification and the methodology that was to be followed on the next stages of the system’s development. During the design phase of the Sudden Ionospheric Monitor a loop antenna was considered as a means to transfer energy from free space into a guided wave into the receiver. A VLF receiver was also considered, which would incorporate all the signal processing and finally a data-logging device after the receiver to act as an interface between the analogue natural events and the digital interface to record data to a PC. At the implementation stage a balanced loop antenna was realised and tested for its applicability on the project and a VLF receiver was constructed to process the signals from distant transmitters as a means to observe the propagation of the transmitted VLF signals received by the system. Observations were made through graphical representations of the VLF signatures on the computer by using a data-logging interface.