Australian Anomaly (updated)

Last night saw some fairly disturbed conditions for a period starting around 19UT, with quieter conditions following within a couple of hours, but remaining a little perturbed throughout the local night.

The last 'normal' evening DX station heard at 14MHz WSPR was 8P9DH at 21:40UT (-21dB).

From then on, all but a very sporadic spot or two of one German and one Italian station were received, with everything stopping at 22:58UT.

Then, 92 minutes after no spots at all had been received, and very anomalously, VK3QN and VK3MO, both operated by Ian Williams, VK3MO, came through at around -27dB for  just the period 01:30UT to 01:40UT (both stations transmit 5W at 10 minute intervals).

The only other UK station to receive the VK3 signals was 2E0PYB, with two spots at 01:00UT and 01:10UT - 20 minutes earlier than my spots, indicating that the mechanism of propagation was consistent with displacement due to the Earth's rotation (2E0PYB, being in Cambridgeshire and so to the east of me, would be expected to hear the spots a computed 16 minutes earlier than my location).

Plot of received spot distances, 2020 October 05-06, 14MHz WSPR, showing anomalous reception of VK3MO and VK3QN around 01:30UT (later morning spots are normal long path events).

 

Compare the disturbed field outcomes with the quiet field condition the following day (06-07 October 2020), using the same X and Y scales:

Distances of WSPR spots 14 MHz, 06-07 October 2020 under quiet geomagnetic conditions.  Note how not only are spots from VK3 not present (either in the depths of early morning, or later, long path morning period), but that the reception of UK and European (local) stations is also suppressed between ~ 02 and 04UT.

These anomalous spots came about 6 hours after most of the geomagnetic activity had occurred.  Whilst it is usually the case that anomalous spots will arrive as the field relaxes to a more quiet state, it is not common to see such spots so long after a relaxation.  Unfortunately, the Kiruna magnetogram, which can provide a better understanding of the field at times, is currently being serviced and unavailable.

(Above) Norwegian line magnetometry 05-06/10/2020(Courtesy TGO).

Norwegian line magnetometry for 2020 October 06-07