WWV reception in the arctic during ionospheric disturbances

Abstract

Reception of W VVV at four h igh-latitude stations is compared with ionospheric data during a period of severe ionospher ic sto rm iness. It was found that the reception q uality of WWV closely follows the morphology of t he d isturbance. Reception at the lower freq uencies was affected primarily by t he peA event and a urora l.-zone absorpt,ion, whi le at t he h igh er frequencies rcception depended upon the storm-time behavioJ' of thc F region. Also, reception was strollgly affected for several hours during the storm by the a ppearance of a large sporadic-E cloud. D es pite the fact that rcce ption quality was assessed by alll'al monitoring, agreement betll'ec n the reported 'vV'vVV reception and t hat which would be expected from the iono3phcric data is rath er good. It is conclu ded that the behavior of radio reception can be explained on the basis of t he space-time variations in ionospheric parameters.