Rl. Dowden et al., DETECTION AND LOCATION OF RED SPRITES BY VLF SCATTERING OF SUBIONOSPHERIC TRANSMISSIONS, Geophysical research letters, 23(14), 1996, pp. 1737-1740
Scattering by the conductive columns of red sprites of VLF waves (''VL
F sprites'') traveling in the Earth-ionosphere waveguide is characteri
zed by wide angle scattering (to 180 degrees). This enabled the first
VLF detection of sprite conductivity and is now used routinely for spr
ite detection and location by measurement of the phase and amplitude a
t both of the frequencies transmitted by NAA, NSS, NLK and NPM. In a b
lind test using only one VLF receiver and the first three of these tra
nsmitters, all of the VLF events fitting the criteria for VLF sprites
were found to correspond to optical sprites and virtually all of the s
prites observed optically corresponded to VLF events. Using only a sin
gle receiver in the high noise environment of local thunderstorms enab
led the range to the sprite to be found to within 100 km and the direc
tion to within 90 degrees. Use of a large number (similar to 10) of su
itably spaced antennas greatly increases the location accuracy and pro
vides some information on the lateral structure of sprite conductivity
.