Two types of ELF hiss observed at Varanasi, India

Abstract. The morphology of ELF hiss events observed at low-latitude ground station Varanasi (L = 1.07, geomagnetic latitude 14°55'N) are reported, which consist of two types: (1) events which propagated in ducted mode along the geomagnetic field line corresponding to observing station Varanasi and (2) events which propagated in ducted mode along higher L-values (L = 4–6), after reaching the lower edge of ionosphere excite the Earth-ionosphere wave guide and propagate towards equator to be received at Varanasi. To understand the generation mechanism of ELF hiss, incoherent Cerenkov radiated power from the low latitude and middle latitude plasmasphere are evaluated. Considering this estimated power as an input for wave amplification through wave-particle interaction, the growth rate and amplification factor is evaluated which is too small to explain the observed wave intensity. It is suggested that some non-linear mechanism is responsible for the generation of ELF hiss.

Key words. Ionosphere (equatorial ionosphere; ionosphere · magnetosphere interactions; wave · particle interactions)