Abstract
Current human activity produces strong electromagnetic pollution. The power spectrum in the extremely low frequency (ELF, 3–3000 Hz) range is mainly polluted by anthropogenic narrow spectral lines at 16.66, 50, and 60 Hz and their harmonics. Meanwhile, signatures connected with natural phenomena appearing in the Earth’s atmosphere, ionosphere and magnetosphere are also observed in the same frequency range. This paper presents the amplitude behaviour of the anthropogenic lines in the years 2005–2014 based on the 10 years of activity of the Hylaty station situated in southeast Poland. The analysis includes, i.a., an assessment of the correctness of the choice of the Bieszczady mountains as a location for the installation of an ELF station for long-term geophysical and climatological studies.
Highlights
The measurement of magnetic field components in the frequency domain from nearly DC to a few hundred Hertz at stations located on the surface of the Earth is a widely used method in geophysical, meteorological, climatological, and earth science studies
The aim of this paper is to look at ELF signals recorded in Hylaty station for identification and characterization of anthropogenic traces as well as for analysing their influence on the quality of study of the natural terrestrial and extra-terrestrial sources of signals
The assessment of the anthropogenic line activity was performed using three kinds of indices, AN, background amplitude (BG), and RLB, where AN is a net amplitude of the analysed narrow spectral line calculated as this line’s amplitude read directly from the spectrum minus the spectral amplitude identified in the nearest background of this line and marked BG
Summary
The measurement of magnetic field components in the frequency domain from nearly DC to a few hundred Hertz at stations located on the surface of the Earth is a widely used method in geophysical, meteorological, climatological, and earth science studies. In Europe a few stations work continuously, such as Nagycenk (47.6°N, 16.7°E) in Hungary, and Eskdalemuir in United Kingdom (55.314°N, 3.206°W), which are described in detail in papers (Sátori et al 1996, Beggan et al 2012). Most of these stations correctly measure the signals at frequencies below 3 Hz, which fall within the ULF (ultra low frequency) range. It should be noted that the ULF wave range is widely used in geophysics studies, i.e., by INTERMAGNET Magnetic Observatories, which use sampling intervals of one or a few seconds to observe Earth’s magnetic field (Jankowski and Sucksdorff 1996, Love and Chulliat 2013, Turbitt et al 2013)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
