Trimpi Perturbations from Large Ionisation Enhancement Patches

Abstract

A number of increasingly sophisticated and realistic models have been developed in order to investigate the interaction between sub-ionospherically propagating VLF waves and regions of enhanced electron density in the D-region caused by lightning induced electron precipitation (LIEs). These LIEs can result in phase and amplitude perturbations on received VLF signals that are referred to as Trimpis. It is important, for comparison with experimentally observed Trimpi effects, that the spatial extent of the D-region electron density perturbation is modeled accurately. Here, it is argued that most previous modeling has used patch sizes that are typically up to 100 km in both latitudinal and longitudinal extent, which are generally smaller than those that actually occur for real lightning induced electron precipitation events. It would also appear that maximum ?Ne values assumed have often been too large and patches have been incorrectly modeled as circular rather than elliptical in horizontal extent. Consequently, in the present work, Trimpi perturbations are determined for LIEs with smaller maximum ?Ne, larger spatial extent and elliptical shape. Calculations of VLF Trimpis have been made as a function of the horizontal coordinates of the LIE centre, over the whole rectangular corridor linking transmitter and receiver. The Trimpi modelling program is fully 3D, and takes account of modal mixing at the LIE. The underlying theory assumes weak Born scattering, but the code calculates a non-Born skin depth attenuation function for the LIE in question. The LIE is modelled as an electron density enhancement with a Gaussian profile in all coordinates. Results for a large elliptical LIE ~ 200 x 600 kms show that significant Trimpis, ~-0.4dB in amplitude and ~+4 degrees in phase are predicted, using modest maximum ?Ne values ~ 1.5 el/cc. Such an electron density enhancement is well within the range that would be expected to result from experimentally observed fluxes of electron precipitation following wave particle interactions with whistler-mode waves. This shows the continued viability of the original explanation of whistler-induced electron precipitation as the mechanism for the “Classical Trimpi”.

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