Measurements of Electrical State of Upper Stratosphere in Polar Regions (Kennelly-Heaviside Layer)

In this paper are described the results of wireless observations made in connection with the International Polar Year 1932-1933 at Moormansk (latitude 68°56′ N; longitude 33°05′ E) in the U.S.S.R. This work was done by the Leningrad Section of the Institute for Scientific Research of the People´s Commissariat for Communication in common with the Central Geophysical Observatory under the direction of the author. A special system with two 150-watt tubes was designed in order to send out short pulses of 20-kilowatt peak power. This was accomplished by using a condenser charged to high tension by a rectifier. By means of a rotary spark gap this condenser was discharged fifty times per second through the plate circuit of the tube oscillator, in which short oscillations of great power were thus produced. The rest of the time the condenser was not connected to the oscillator and the charge was gradually stored up. Thanks to this method it was possible to carry out experiments under expeditionary conditions, using but a small power. The observations were made with a cathode ray tube, the current of a small alternator, driven on the same shaft as the transmitter discharger, causing a circular motion of the spot on the tube. The transmitter and receiver were separated by a distance of three kilometers and linked by wire. Records are given of measurements on several days of June, July, and August, 1933, as well as a classification of observed phenomena.