A re-examination of impulsive VLF signals in the night ionosphere of Venus

Journal Article · Fri Dec 01 04:00:00 EST 1989 · Geophysical Research Letters (American Geophysical Union); (USA)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1029/GL016i012p01481· OSTI ID:5847686

Russell, C T; Singh, R N

Singh and Russell (1986) reported that impulsive electrical signals observed by the Pioneer Venus Orbiter Electric Field Detector at all frequencies clustered about periapsis. However, the impulsive signals consist of both signals entering the instrument through the antenna and artificial pulses associated with telemetry errors as Taylor and Cloutier (1988) have pointed out. Obvious telemetry errors were not included in the original study but records of which signals were thought to be naturally occurring and which were thought to be telemetry noise were not kept. Thus the authors cannot check the original identifications on a point-by-point basis. The authors can, however, repeat the study and compare statistical results. This study indicates that there is naturally occurring noise in the dark ionosphere of Venus near periapsis as originally reported by Singh and Russell. However, the absolute rates of occurrence of the original study and the present work differ. These differences may be due to the use of a higher threshold in the earlier study together with the lack of sufficient discrimination against telemetry dropouts. The rates of naturally occurring emissions also differ from the non-spike noise rates obtained by Taylor and Cloutier although rates of artificial signals are similar.

• OSTI ID: 5847686
• Journal Information: Geophysical Research Letters (American Geophysical Union); (USA), Journal Name: Geophysical Research Letters (American Geophysical Union); (USA) Vol. 16:12; ISSN 0094-8276; ISSN GPRLA
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

640107* -- Astrophysics & Cosmology-- Planetary Phenomena
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
DATA ANALYSIS
ELECTRIC DISCHARGES
ERRORS
LIGHTNING
MATHEMATICS
NOISE
ORIGIN
PIONEER SPACE PROBES
PLANETARY IONOSPHERES
PLANETS
PLASMA WAVES
SPACE VEHICLES
STATISTICS
VEHICLES
VENUS PLANET