The main goals of the Chibis-M mission are the testing of a new micro-satellite technology, the study of new physical processes related to lightning activity and the verification of possible monitoring techniques of Space Weather phenomena. In frames of the Chibis-M mission an electromagnetic wave complex MWC is installed on board of the satellite composed of electromagnetic sensors and SAS3 measuring unit. The obtained data show that the scientific instrumentation operates properly and produces interesting information. Here we present the first results of the first year of operation of the MWC in the ELF–VLF bands in different operation modes. An important conclusion is that basing on the experience of the first year it is possible to realize an effective and reliable Space Weather monitoring system using micro-satellites and simultaneously operating ground support equipments.

A type of electromagnetic phenomenon has been found in the electric VLF data measured by the low Earth orbit DEMETER satellite, which was nonidentified earlier as a different class of electromagnetic VLF events. The phenomenon, termed as “swallow‐tailed whistler” (STW) after its shape, seems to be similar to a whistler, but following the main trace, an additional trace appears with monotonously increasing frequency. The secondary trace, lasting less than 80 ms within the recorded 20 kHz bandwidth joins at a given Starting Furcation Frequency. In a 7 month long time interval three series of strong STWs were found in a geographically confined search zone. Further, 10 weak STW periods have been identified by a thorough review of a 2 month long recording. Several STWs were found by the investigation of randomly selected DEMETER burst VLF recording acquired globally. On the basis of comparisons with previous studies, we can exclude that this phenomenon is generated by plasma processes in the vicinity of the satellite though the formation mechanism of this (ionospheric) signal is so far unclear. It is possible that this event type appeared in earlier records too, however, without identification.

J. Lichtenberger, Cs. Ferencz and D. Hamar, Space Research Group, Department of Geophysics and Space Sciences, Eötvös University, Budapest, Pázmány P. sétány 1/A, H-1117 Hungary (spacerg@sas.elte.hu) P. Steinbach, Research Group for Geology, Geophysics and Space Sciences, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Pázmány P. sétány 1/A, H-1117 Hungary (spacerg@sas.elte.hu) C. J. Rodger, Department of Physics, University of Otago, P.O. Box 56, Dunedin, New Zealand (crodger@physiscs.oatgo.ac.nz) M. A. Clilverd, British Antarctic Survey, High Cross, Madingly Road, Cambridge CB3 0ET, United Kingdom (macl@bas.ac.uk) A. B. Collier, Hemanus Magnetic Observatory, P.O. Box 32, Hermanus, 7200, South Africa; School of Physics, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 4001, South Africa (collierab@gmail.com)

The full potential of whistlers for monitoring plasmaspheric electron density variations has not yet been realized. The primary reason is the vast human effort required for the analysis of whistler traces. Recently, the first part of a complete whistler analysis procedure was successfully automated, i.e., the automatic detection of whistler traces from the raw broadband VLF signal was achieved. This study describes a new algorithm developed to determine plasmaspheric electron density measurements from whistler traces, based on a Virtual (Whistler) Trace Transformation, using a 2‐D fast Fourier transform transformation. This algorithm can be automated and can thus form the final step to complete an Automatic Whistler Detector and Analyzer (AWDA) system. In this second AWDA paper, the practical implementation of the Automatic Whistler Analyzer (AWA) algorithm is discussed and a feasible solution is presented. The practical implementation of the algorithm is able to track the variations of plasmasphere in quasi real time on a PC cluster with 100 CPU cores. The electron densities obtained by the AWA method can be used in investigations such as plasmasphere dynamics, ionosphere‐plasmasphere coupling, or in space weather models.

The advanced electromagnetic wave detector and analyzer, Signal Analyzer and Sampler 2, successfully operated on board of Compass‐2 satellite (launched May 2006). One of the peculiarities of this experiment was that the efficient sensitivities of both electric and magnetic channels were very close to being identical. Between the interesting events detected we found the evidence of whistler mode signals propagating in higher‐ (third‐) order guided mode, most probable between two layers (i.e., “onionskin” structure was in the plasmasphere at this time). We present in the paper the real full wave ultrawideband interpretation of these propagating signals using the exact solution of Maxwell's equations in this boundary problem.

The method presented in Chapter 1 can be used not only in cases in which the media in space-segments are homogeneous between the boundary surfaces — see Fig. 1.1 —, but also in cases in which the media in these space-segments are weakly inhomogeneous (quasi-homogeneous) or inhomogeneous (e.g. Ferencz, 1995b) and the gradient of the inhomogeneous medium parameters is limited only by the validity-condition of the method (Ferencz, 1978a). In the following let us generalise the method of solution — presented in point 1.1 and applied in point 1.3 — for the cases in which the media in the space-segments are quasi-homogeneous and inhomogeneous between the boundary surfaces.

In this chapter we will consider ELF-VLF waves because of the following reasons: