Topband: Topband Propagation - Moon Effects !

[by way of Bill Tippett <btippett at alum.mit.edu>]

  Hi All,
as Don says lets think outside the box.  The idea of reflected sunlight via 
the moon was squashed a couple of years ago when I also raised the subject.

However the effect of the sun and moon also has an effect on tides so if 
the gravity from these objects can impinge on the sea which is a fluid, why 
not the ionospheric layers in some way.

With the moon on the opposite side to the darkness the gravitational pull 
could lower the E & F layers, increasing the density and hence affecting 
the critical frequency.  Or, could the pull affect the magnetic field in 
someway ?

As Massey and Boyd mention in "The Upper Atmosphere" Pub. Hutchinson & Co 
1958: page 42:
""The regular components of the magnetic variations can be correlated with 
Solar and Lunar time.  There is a Solar component referred to as Sq which 
varies rhythmically with a period of half a solar day, and a similar Lunar 
component (L) which is rather smaller.
   The periodic behaviour of the fluctuations in relation to the sun and 
moon suggest an association with the tidal motion produced in the 
atmosphere, as well as in the oceansby the gravity of the sun and moon.  It 
seems clear that tidal mtion of the ionosphere gives rise to electric 
currents which in turn produce the changes in the earth's magnetism at 
ground-level.  These currents are called dynamo currents because they are 
generaed in much the same way as electric current by a dynamo....
.....
page 43
In addition to the generation of dynamo currents, tidal motions in the 
ionosphere lead to vertical drift of ionisation which is particularly 
important in the F2 and F layers...  Fluctuations in the height of the E 
layer have been observed which have correlated with lunar atmospheric tides.""

Food for thought - no flame throwers please !!

best 73s

Bob Parkes
G3REP