Regular and seasonal behaviour of atmospheric radio noise field strength (ARNFS) over low latitude station calcutta

Summary

The electromagnetic radiation of cloud discharge known as atmospheric radio noise field strength (ARNFS) shows a gradual fall from a frequency of 9 kHz to 81 kHz as studied over a period of two years at Calcutta, very close to Bay of Bengal. The main characteristic features of ARNFS at Calcutta are that-(i) ARNFS shows that midday median value is smaller than midnight median value in all months, (ii) level of daily minimum is higher in February and monsoon compared to other seasons, (iii) ‘sunrise effect’ and ‘sunset effect’ are well correlated with local sunrise and sunset times, (iv) the magnitude of ‘sunrise fade’ and ‘sunrise fade rate’ are maximum in April and lowest during winter period, (v) the magnitude of sunset fade is higher in premonsoon and postmonsoon while it is lowest in monsoon, (vi) number of occurrence of both sunrise effect and sunset effect is remark-ably smaller in monsoon. The positions of the sun and of atmospheric sources are jointly the causes of seasonal and diurnal variations. The missing of ‘sunrise effect’ and ‘sunset effect’ are due to local cloud activity and variation of electron density during geomagnetic storms.