AFI 01/08 - Imaging the plasmasphere from Antarctica - VLF Doppler (Doppler Radio Receiver) at Rothera 2001-2002

The opportunity was taken to link into a NASA satellite mission occurring at the same time and with similar goals - to study the dynamics of the Earth-Sun system at a location where the two systems are finely balanced. The experiments have been used to interpret the changes in plasma composition at the same point in space due to solar weather events.

A refurbished VLF Doppler receiver was installed at Rothera to measure plasmaspheric electron concentration. The electron number density was determined from analysis of the 15 minute integration providing group delay times, Doppler shift and arrival bearing of whistler-mode signals, of man-made transmissions, from MSK format transmitters from north east America. If you would like more information about the VLF Doppler receiver data that is still being routinely collected a t Rothera please contact the Antarctic Environmental Data Centre (&AEDC&) at the British Antarctic Survey.