Space-Weather Sounds - the Mysterious and Beautiful Natural Radio Phenomena of Earth
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Natural VLF Radio Phenomena Audio Files - Page Level 3 of 3
Build the McGreevy BBB-4b Whistler Receiver | WR-3/VLF Listening Guide and VLF Handbook | Gram-42 PC Spectrogram application by R.S. Horne (gram42.zip)
Donegal, Ireland
Portnoo and Narin, Donegal, are two tiny hamlets on the northwestern coast of the Republic of Ireland that have lovely views of Inishkeel Island, just offshore in Gwebarra Bay, and farther away to the north, Aran Island. Leading away to the east of Portnoo/Narin is a long strand of beach that gets one a mile from small powerlines, so the 50 Hz hum levels are low. On the evening of 04 May 1996 in evening twilight, I strolled eastward along the beach and grassy dunes, catching these whistlers quite similar to the ones heard on London nearly a week later, though the Donegal whistlers were considerably weaker than the Battersea Park ones, alas. Donegal Whistlers 04 May 96 at about 10:00 p.m. BST. 58 seconds, 482 KB, 64 kbps (I would have lovely photos, but the rolls were lost when I moved from the SF Bay Area in 1996)
INISHKEEL ISLAND - After walking back toward Portnoo along the Narin Strand (it was nearly midnight!), I waited about 30 minutes for the tide to go out, exposing a sand-bar linking the Donegal mainland with Inishkeel Island, a small island just off the Donegal coast from Narin Strand, in Gwebarra Bay. There are two 12th Century ruins on this island and a small homestead, otherwise off-the-grid. Wading in the chilly, receeding waters, I made it to the island, recording a couple of whistlers before walking back to the guest cottage a mile away in Portnoo. 50 Hz powerline hum from the hamlets still was audible on the Island, only 1/3 mile off-shore. Whistlers on Inishkeel Island, Donegal, around midnight local-time, 05 may 1996. 2 minutes, 1.4 MB, 96 kbps.
Mendocino County, California
On a whim, I took a two night trip north of the San Francisco Bay Area back in April 1994 up toward Cloverdale, then headed westbound on State Hwy. 128. A bit along, I spied a turnoff to Fish Rock Road, and having never gone that way before, I decided to try it out. It was a narrow winding road through the coastal hills of mixed groves of Oak and Redwood trees heading toward the coast. Better yet, no powerlines ran along the road, and I found a good pullout to spend a night in this very quiet and gorgeous area replete with green spring grasses and wildflowers. Early the morning of 02 April 1994 at 4:27 a.m. PST (1127 UT), I captured some of the most GORGEOUS-sounding whistlers I'd ever heard. Also in this segment is my voice doing a date and time check! Virtually no powerline hum audible. Fish Rock Road Whistlers 1.5 MB, 2 minutes, 64 kbps. a segment recorded about 20 minutes before the segment in this file was presented in my first double-CD album "Electric Enigma" by Irdial-Discs of London that is (alas) not available any longer. Recorded on my specialized WR-4b receiver with 3-foot tall copper-pipe antenna attached to my van's rear doors.
Whistlers in the Mojave Desert
Nevada Desert Whistlers Sept. '99; Death Valley/Joshua Tree National Park(s) California Whistlers and Chorus- Oct. 30th, November 2nd, 2002:
Whistlers in the Nevada Desert, Sept. 1999: Streams of pure-tone whistlers recorded in central Nevada, near Rachel, Nev. and Area 51 on the morning (about 0500 PDT/1200 UT) 17th September 1999 on my way to Zion National Park. 1.4 MB, 21 seconds - from lightning storms (moonsoon type) in the general area. nv91799b.wav
I managed to do a whistler check for autumn 2002 throughout the Mojave Desert -- Here are a bit of those recordings...
Whistlers and chorus recorded about 4 miles from Ubehebe Crater, northern Death Valley National Park, California at 1200 UT (5 a.m. Pacific Daylight Saving Time). WR-4b receiver and 9 foot whip vertical antenna. (VIEW PHOTO) Recorded on same road-trip as the Joshua Tree National Park (s.e. California) Whistlers recorded at 1215 UT (05:15 PDT) 30 October 2002 at White Tank Campground - whistlers in the night before first light at this gorgeous location surrounded by granite boulder!
Alberta August 2000 Solar-Max. Expediton - Redux
The following audio file is from my cassette-tape collection of recordings from the Alberta August 2000 VLF stereo recording expedition (where I spent 7 days and nights in the northern Alberta boreal forest with a 2-loop-antenna receiver set-up to check out natural VLF radio phenomena during the peak of the (sunspot) Solar Cycle. More details are below, so I'll keep it short and say I found this supurb segment of a dramatically-strong and loud "hook" that swoops upward in frequency. It was recorded a few minutes before the barrage of overlappping hooks recorded in an audio file further below (1_hooks.mp3 file detailed below). awesome_hooks_and_nose_whistlers_whitemud_alta_081300_2107ut.mp3, recorded (as the file name implies) on 13 August 2000 at 2107 UT/2.07 p.m. MDT. A severe and immense magnetic-storm created these lovely sounds, and also produced awesome red aurorae seen as far south as northern Mexico early the morning of August 13th (the display in Alberta was breathtaking), splendidly coinciding with the peak of the Perseids Meteor shower - an annual spectacle I try to never miss. This recording is LONG: 6 minutes, 8 seconds, and is 2.9 MB in size.
Death Valley National Park Whistlers - April 23, 2002:
Compilation of loud whistlers recorded 23 April 2002 (0700 - 1300 UT) from northern Death Valley a few miles from Scotty's Castle. about 30 sec., (223 KB). A coronal-mass-ejection from the sun caused an electron/proton storm as well as a minor magnetic storm, vastly enhancing already good vernal whistler conditions.
All the other natural VLF Radio audio files in MP3 format:
Joshua Tree National Park, s.e. California:
Whistlers at 1125 UT (4:25 a.m. PDT), Monday 23 October 2001. 643KB at 96 kbps quality, 1.5 minutes duration, mono.
Northern Alberta, Canada, August 2000:
Alberta (August 2001) VLF Expedition: A STEREO recording of spectacular 'hooks.'< This file is also the beginning track on Disc One of "Auroral Chorus III" CD album. This 645KB MP3 file over 1 minute in length was recorded by Steve McGreevy in northern Alberta, Canada on 13 August 2000 at approximately 1500 UT, during my August 2000 (near solar-maximum) VLF recording expedition into the auroral-zone region of northern Alberta, Canada.
SUMMER 1996 SOLAR-MINIMUM VLF RECORDING EXPEDITION to Manitoba, Canada:
Grass River Provincial Park 22 Aug. - 05 Sept. This recording expedition was undertaken to both observe the Northern Lights and also to present recordings of natural radio signals at high-latitudes during the lowest period of the Sunspot cycle:
The site at full-moonrise, and beautiful full-sky aurora in Manitoba, Canada on the night of 28-29 August 1996. Photo by Stephen P. McGreevy
Located 45 miles south-east of Flin Flon, Manitoba, a fine place for aurora watching and Natural ELF-VLF Radio monitoring during the late summer. Most of central Canada is probably the finest and also easiest location in North America to hear an astounding and beautiful variety of natural radio sounds and watch the aurora in the late summer early autumn.
August/September McGreevy VLF Recordings made from Grass River
Provincial Park, Manitoba, Canada:
This is just a tiny sample of the huge variety of emissions I recorded on each of those 13 days there. More August 1996 Manitoba expedition sound files are available on this other page.
23 August 1996 - 1505 UTC. Long-duration chorus risers along with low-pitched "roaring" hissband - spectacular recording:
23a1505.mp3, 413K, 37 sec.
View a Spectrogram of 23 August - 1505 UTC recording
25 August 1996 at 1700 UTC - Gorgeous loud bursts of risersand other components of chorus, very-weak background low-pitched roaring hissband. The bursts of chorus risers occurring at 4seconds into this file (at freqencies between 2 and 3 kHz) seems to be triggered by a burst of lightning static impulses occurring at 1.8 to 2 seconds into this audio-file recording. Please see the spectrogram below.25a1700.mp3, 14.25 sec., 157212 bytes
View spectrogram of 25 August 1996 - 1700 UT recordingSpectrogram of 25 August - 1700 UTC recording
27 August 1996 at 1545 UTC - Very low-pitched chorus risers and "hooks". Quite nice sounding. As this type of chorusis rarer than higher-pitched chorus, I find this more excitingto hear and record! This morning, I also walked around the area carrying my portable WR-3E VLF receiver, listening during a walk while the tape recorder was running back at the van, making this recording.27a1545.mp3, 16 sec., 177588 bytes
View spectrogram of 27 August 1996 - 1545 UT recording
SOUND FILES PAGE ONE
This and other CD info available at this link - SpM
Updated 17 April 2007 by Stephen P. McGreevy
The audio files on this site are for the delight and fascination of everyone visiting this page. Use of them in presentations is encouraged provided 1) credit is given to me, and 2) the URL of this site is provided. Thank you. Stephen P. McGreevy
