Radio Noise Measurements in the Long-Wave Band at Thule, Greenland

• Main Authors: Fraser-Smith, A. C., McGill, P. R., Helliwell, Robert A., Houery, Sibylle
• Other Authors: STANFORD UNIV CA SPACE TELECOMMUNICATIONS AND RADIOSCIENCE LAB (STAR)
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1989
• Subjects: Geography; Cybernetics; Radiofrequency Wave Propagation; *RADIOMETERS; *GREENLAND; *BACKGROUND NOISE; *ATMOSPHERICS; *NOISE(RADIO); HIGH LATITUDES; RADIOMETRY; ANTARCTIC REGIONS; VERY LOW FREQUENCY; TEMPERATE REGIONS; LATITUDE; EXTREMELY LOW FREQUENCY; NOISE; UNIVERSITIES; STATISTICS; POSITION(LOCATION); EQUATORIAL REGIONS; MEASUREMENT; PE62715H; WURADCR2480020; Antarctic; Greenland; The Antarctic; Antarc*; Geomagnetic Pole; Thule
• Online Access: http://www.dtic.mil/docs/citations/ADA215027; http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?&verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=ADA215027

In August 1985 we installed a Stanford University ELF/VLF radiometer at Thule, Greenland to make measurements of the natural ELF/VLF (frequencies in the range 10 Hz-32kHz) radio noise background. Thule is very nearly unique in that it lies not only at a relatively high geographic latitude (76.55 deg) but it is also very close to the north geomagnetic pole, with the result that its radio noise background not only contains the normal lightning-generated noise typical of the lower latitudes (sferics, tweeks) but in addition it contains an unusual selection of magnetospherically-generated components (primarily ELF/VLF chorus and hiss) that cannot be observed on the ground, or are only rarely observed on the ground, at low and middle latitudes. The only other comparable location for such noise measurements is the Soviet station Vostok in the Antarctic. In this report we summarize many of the ELF and VLF radio noise measurements made at Thule in the three years the radiometer was started in operation, and we compare the noise statistics with those from Sondrestromfjord, which is also located in Greenland, but at a lower latitude (66.99 deg N).