Radio aeronomy in Nigeria: First results from very low frequency (VLF) radio waves receiving station at Anchor University, Lagos

Abstract

The study of the Earth’s atmosphere and the space environment is important because of the role played by the medium in the activities that affect the Earth and its inhabitants directly or indirectly. A robust capability to monitor, model and predict the happenings in the atmospheric space through deployment of both space- and ground-based observational systems for data acquisition, is key to result-oriented scientific research in atmospheric and space sciences. In this paper, we highlight the importance of regional deployment of observational facilities for data acquisition to complement current observational tools. We briefly review the capabilities of very low frequency (VLF) radio waves (in monitoring and studying changes in the atmosphere and ionosphere), and also present data obtained from our newly deployed VLF radio waves receiver at Anchor University, Lagos (AUL). We show that the diurnal signature characterised by VLF radio signal reflected in the data of three of four propagation paths (AUL-HWU, AUL-JJI, AUL-NWC and AUL-VTX) received at AUL. This outcome shows that operational condition of the VLF radio wave receiver is good. We anticipate interesting findings as we exploit this institution-based dataset to probe ionospheric irregularities in our region for the first time. In the light of some identified ionospheric changes in the equatorial region, we anticipate that our research effort using this regional VLF dataset will yield new results that will be resourceful for better understanding and characterisation of the dynamics of the equatorial D-layer ionosphere, since our region of reception (Lagos) lies close to the equator.