Observations of Early/Fast VLF Events on Vieques Island, Puerto Rico

Early/Fast VLF events are registered as sudden (i.e., "fast" < 20 ms) subionospheric VLF signal changes, occurring simultaneously (i.e., "early", <20 ms) with lightning discharges [e.g., Inan et al., GRL, 20, 2355, 1993]. These events constitute evidence of the direct energetic coupling between tropospheric thunderstorms and the overlying mesospheric and lower ionospheric regions. In August-September 2001 Penn State University organized an experimental campaign in Puerto Rico to perform correlative studies of lightning and lightning-induced ionospheric effects. A set of instruments employed for these studies included Arecibo Observatory 430 MHz UHF radar, New Mexico Tech Interferometer, and a video system. As part of this campaign Stanford University deployed broadband and narrowband VLF receivers at Casa Cielo, Vieques Island, Puerto Rico (18.12 deg N, 65.50 deg W), which were operated continuously during the time period August 21- September 15, 2001. The narrowband measurements of the NAU (Aguadilla, Puerto Rico), NLK (Jim Creek, Washington) and NAA (Cutler, Maine) signals were performed every day from 1500UT to 1400UT while broadband recordings were made 1 minute out of every 5 minutes from 1630UT to 1000UT. In this talk we report observations of spectacular early/fast VLF events, which were detected on the 40.75 kHz NAU signal on multiple occasions during August 31, September 1, 2 and 13, 2001. The observed signal amplitude changes ranged from a fraction of a dB up to 19 dB, with both positive and negative field changes. The unusually large events were superposed on top of a very high degree of variability of signal amplitude, caused by the fact that the magnetic loop antenna was aligned to null the ground signal and was thus disposed to only detect the sky wave signal. Some of the observed events exhibited recovery signatures with duration on the order of several tens of seconds, while a subset of events did not exhibit clear recovery signatures, possibly masked by the high variability of the NAU signal. The majority of reported events exhibit very sharp onsets (<20 ms) clearly associated with strong radio atmospheric signatures observed in multiple VLF channels. In all observed cases the thunderstorm cells possibly responsible for these events were located at distances ranging from approximately 150 to 400 km from the observational site.