Modeling of sub-ionospheric VLF signal perturbations associated with total solar eclipse, 2009 in Indian subcontinent

Abstract

During the total solar eclipse of 2009, a week-long campaign was conducted in the Indian sub-continent to study the low-latitude D-region ionosphere using the very low frequency (VLF) signal from the Indian Navy transmitter (call sign: VTX3) operating at 18.2kHz. It was observed that in several places, the signal amplitude is enhanced while in other places the amplitude is reduced. We simulated the observational results using the well known Long Wavelength Propagation Capability (LWPC) code. As a first order approximation, the ionospheric parameters were assumed to vary according to the degree of solar obscuration on the way to the receivers. This automatically brought in non-uniformity of the ionospheric parameters along the propagation paths. We find that an assumption of 4km increase of lower ionospheric height for places going through totality in the propagation path simulate the observations very well at Kathmandu and Raiganj. We find an increase of the height parameter by h′=+3.0km for the VTX-Malda path and h′=+1.8km for the VTX-Kolkata path. We also present, as an example, the altitude variation of electron number density throughout the eclipse time at Raiganj.