Comment on “A re‐examination of impulsive VLF signals in the night ionosphere of Venus”

Abstract

Taylor and Cloutier (TC, 1988) previously argued that Singh and Russell (SR, 1986) wrongly identified telemetry interference as VLF broadband signals originating in Venus 'lightning events'. A response was made by Russell and Singh (RS, 1989). This comment criticizes RS, arguing that the SR did not distinguish between signal and noise and that RS makes false claims about the SR analysis. In a reply to TC, Russell argues that the SR paper, while flawed, was not intended to be quantitative and succeeds in bringing attention to the morphology of the signals seen in the upper three channels of the Pioneer Venus electric field detector.