Glen Elder State Park
Over the past week, I drove some 1300km around Kansas looking at field sites for an upcoming VLF recording campaign. We surveyed a bunch of sites to find optimal sites for when we return at the end of the month to do more detailed and precise recordings.
Our receivers are designed to effectively record all electromagnetic radiation in the frequency range of 100 Hz to 30 kHz (the VLF frequency region). We are interested in two sources of radio noise, sferics, or the impulsive signal that comes from all lightning strikes, and VLF transmitters like NAA or NPM. These transmitters are operated by the Navy.
The primary objective of the recording campaign is to capture the waveforms of many sferics and characterize them such that we can learn information about how far they have traveled in the Earth-Ionosphere waveguide and what may have perturbed their propagation in the waveguide.
This picture is from somewhere in Kanopolis State Park, KS. I actually know EXACTLY where this is, I just can't tell you.
Who knew Kansas was dotted with State Parks? I sure didn't. Almost every lake or reservoir has a small State Park attached to it. Just big enough for a few horse trails and some campgrounds. And hopefully a VLF receiver.
What makes a site an "optimal" site?
ReplyDeleteA site is 'optimal' when we deem it such.
ReplyDeleteBasically, we want to be both away from power lines, and away from other people. We'd rather much not have our equipment stolen. Power lines radiate some electromagnetic noise.