"Upper-Level Lows and 6-Meter Sporadic E" Published in QST

Using 6-meter QSO spot data from www.dxmaps.com, HamSCI member Joe Dzekevich, K1YOW, has found correlations of 6-meter sporadic E and Upper-Level Low pressure systems. His findings are now published in the December 2012 QST (reprinted with permission from the ARRL).

 

In his article, amateur radio is used to explore possible correlations between weather storm systems and sporadic E clouds to see if they are collocated. While some of the main causes of sporadic E propagation are wind shear, meteor strikes and upper atmospheric tides (ultimately coming from solar EUV energy inputs), radio operators have noticed that sporadic E propagation is also changed significantly by hurricanes and storms.  Specific cases where K1YOW used amateur radio to investigate the effects of low pressure weather storms on the formation and/or enhancement of 6 meter sporadic E clouds are presented. DX Maps and earth wide weather model charts combined with operations on 6 meters are used to examine possible correlations between the location of the sporadic E clouds and the low pressure weather storm systems.  Initial findings show a high degree of correlation when magnetic field strength is taken into consideration.