Sudden Ionosphere Disturbances Gain Attention

By Doug Lung
published


An item in the Jan. 22 K7RA Solar Update mentioned a Sudden Ionospheric Disturbance (SID) last Wednesday after a solar flare. It also provided links to Stanford University Websites that describe SIDs and how to build equipment to monitor them.

The Stanford SOLAR Center Space Weather Monitors Web page has many links describing how to build a SID monitor. The Technical Documents Web page has schematics for a SID monitor.

The circuit is simple: a loop antenna that will work at frequencies in the low kHz range around 24 kHz, an active filter around this frequency, a preamplifier and a detector. SIDs can be detected by monitoring variations in signals from very low frequency transmitters at various locations worldwide. A link to a list of these transmitters [PDF] is available on the Weather Monitor Web page.

The AWESOME monitor provides additional capability, allowing monitoring of interesting very low frequency (VLF) phenomena including sprites and whistlers. "AWESOME" is an acronym for "Atmospheric Weather Electromagnetic System for Observation, Modeling and Education."

Doug Lung
Doug Lung

Doug Lung is one of America's foremost authorities on broadcast RF technology. As vice president of Broadcast Technology for NBCUniversal Local, H. Douglas Lung leads NBC and Telemundo-owned stations’ RF and transmission affairs, including microwave, radars, satellite uplinks, and FCC technical filings. Beginning his career in 1976 at KSCI in Los Angeles, Lung has nearly 50 years of experience in broadcast television engineering. Beginning in 1985, he led the engineering department for what was to become the Telemundo network and station group, assisting in the design, construction and installation of the company’s broadcast and cable facilities. Other projects include work on the launch of Hawaii’s first UHF TV station, the rollout and testing of the ATSC mobile-handheld standard, and software development related to the incentive auction TV spectrum repack.
A longtime columnist for TV Technology, Doug is also a regular contributor to IEEE Broadcast Technology. He is the recipient of the 2023 NAB Television Engineering Award. He also received a Tech Leadership Award from TV Tech publisher Future plc in 2021 and is a member of the IEEE Broadcast Technology Society and the Society of Broadcast Engineers.