Abstract
This study presents analysis of very low frequency (VLF) transmitter
signal measurements on the Very-Low-Frequency Propagation Mapper (VPM)
CubeSat in low-Earth orbit. Six months of satellite operation provided
good data coverage, used to build global statistical maps of VLF power
distribution. The power distribution above four powerful transmitters is
used as input for ray tracing to study signal propagation to the
conjugate hemisphere in two plasmaspheric density models. The ray
tracing results are further compared with VPM measurements to determine
which model provides better agreement with observations. As ray
propagation largely depends on the background plasma density
distribution, this indirect method can be used for plasmaspheric density
model validation as an alternative to multipoint in situ plasma
measurements that may not be readily obtainable. In addition, it can be
used to investigate Landau damping and ducted vs. non-ducted propagation
of VLF signals.