We investigate a novel way to quantify Very Low Frequency transmission in the Earth-Ionosphere Waveguide, using data from the World Wide Lightning Location Network (WWLLN). The lightning signals from intense and long-duration storm clusters are recorded at several stations. Any individual stroke amplitude is in principle unknown, so that the recorded electric field from that stroke varies semi-randomly from the recorded field due to other strokes from that storm cluster. Thus, it is not possible to straightforwardly infer the channel characteristics from a stroke recorded at a single station. However, if two stations record the signal from the same stroke, then the inter-station ratio of the recorded amplitude on the two fixed propagation paths is (in the absence of noise) independent of source power. We develop a procedure to provide information on time-variations in the waveguide transmission, using an approach based on ratios of amplitudes from pair of stations which record the same strokes. These amplitude-ratio data are then compared to an existing model of full-wave Very Low Frequency reflection from the underside of the ionosphere.

中文翻译：

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使用全球闪电定位网络 (WWLLN) 研究地球-电离层波导中的甚低频传输：1. 与全波模型的比较

我们使用来自全球闪电定位网络 (WWLLN) 的数据，研究了一种量化地球-电离层波导中的甚低频传输的新方法。来自强烈和持续时间长风暴团的闪电信号在几个站点被记录。原则上，任何单个笔划幅度都​​是未知的，因此由于来自该风暴群的其他笔划，该笔划记录的电场与记录的场半随机变化。因此，不可能从单个电台记录的笔画直接推断通道特性。然而，如果两个站记录来自同一笔划的信号，则两个固定传播路径上记录的幅度的站间比（在没有噪声的情况下）与源功率无关。我们开发了一个程序来提供有关波导传输中时间变化的信息，使用基于来自记录相同笔画的一对站的幅度比的方法。然后将这些幅度比数据与来自电离层底部的全波甚低频反射的现有模型进行比较。