FDTD Analysis of ELF Wave Propagation for Realistic Subionospheric Waveguide Models

The space formed by the ground and ionosphere is known to act as a resonator for extremely low frequency (ELF) waves. Lightning discharges trigger this global resonance, which is known as Schumann resonance. Even though the inhomogeneity (like day-night asymmetry, local perturbation etc.) is important for such a subionospheric ELF propagation, the previous analyses have been always made by some approximations because the problem is too complicated to be analyzed by any exact full-wave analysis. This paper presents the application of the conventional numerical FDTD (finite difference time domain) method to such a subionospheric ELF wave propagation, in which any kinds of inhomogeneities can be included in this analysis. The present paper is intended to demonstrate the workability of this method for a realistic waveguide (with day-night asymmetry), by comparing the results from this method with those by the corresponding analytical method.