Author: Flavio Gori

Short intro.

Information from the valley inhabitants driving to consider the possibilities that Hessdalen Phenomena tend to appear most during the fall winter season, while during summer we experience the lowest report (1a). This may come from the darkness winter days as well as the summer most daylight, of course. Since this statistical evidence, we should take in good account if something may arise around the solstices (winter and summer).

For this purpose we can consider weather connections (temperature, pressure, humidity and connected electricity in the atmosphere) as it is done in many important papers from Russian Scientists in the Ball Lighting (BL) theories (17 - 18). In some cases it seems that BL hypothesis shows good connections even in the Hessdalen Phenomena.

Around winter and summer solstices we are experiencing another interesting connection, electron density related. It may be important take in account one more possibility: very powerful HF radio injections in the ionosphere from some ground bases stations. One of them is located at Trømso a Norwegian town about 700 km north from the Hessdalen valley. The last one may give unexpected contribution to create the atmospheric condition (electron precipitation) able to trigger optical phenomena at various distance, depending the HF radio frequency used, even when natural condition are not the ideal ones. In the same time powerful radio HF emissions are likely able to boost favourable natural condition in order to increase electron temperature and precipitation to the lower ionospheric regions. Riometer measurement may give an important cross-reference in order to confirm or not this hypothesis, since cosmic natural noise from space should get higher, after electrons missing the higher ionosphere layers.
Since many worldwide stations are used to put very powerful radio emission in the ionosphere, this one may be a good way to understand the so called Hessdalen-like-Phenomena even in other world regions.

It is my will to propose research path that appear to be promising though lacking very close Hessdalen spotting research, at this time. As in my previous work about this subject, I have used the measured data from scientific observatories in the Ionospheric Electron field, in order to better describe my hypothesis. These data are easily available through the Reference section at the end of my work. I use them for HP purpose, asking for deeper research in this field, in order to offer one more perspective to Hessdalen Phenomena. Moreover I propose scientific and technical ways to verify my hypothesis through existing Observatories data report.

A point of View.

Reported (19) analogies, we'll speculate a little bit more, hypothesizing that the phenomena triggering the Hessdalen Lights may be in some way connected to the Electron Density in the Plasmasphere, down to lower atmosphere layers, through the reported means. We could maybe say that SCEBs turning to be visible regarding the Electron Quantity found along their path, as if SCEB inner composition elements would going to break themselves matching such high electron density.

The Electron Density (ED) as well as Electron irregularities, or fluctuations, in the channel driving electrons down toward the very low atmosphere might trigger optical phenomena. High electron density per meter/square or fast electron fluctuations as well, may break SCEBs, originating energy realising then optical phenomena/lights, as well as their apparent erratic movement that may be induced by following electronic currents in the lower atmosphere. Considering the highest or the lowest ED, SCEBs-then-lights-(HP) may vary direction and speed/acceleration, according ED ratio between the area where they are at a given time and one of the closest areas reporting highest electron density. A particular ED ratio around a given area can give variation of direction towards the area reporting higher ED at that moment. Acceleration will change according with the ED ratio between the place where SCEBs/HP are on a given time and the closest one with highest ED (i.e. acceleration toward that area, as if highest Electron Density difference acts as an attraction machine for SCEB and/or HP). Even a 90° turn may be observable if the ED ratio offers favorable condition (great attraction strenght based upon very high density difference between contiguous areas) in that direction. On the other hand, an ED equilibrium on a given region (more contiguous areas), may give SCEB/HP getting slow (more o less depending on that ED balance and reduction in the region) turning still, until this equilibrium will keep on. If no zone will prevail, SCEBs/HP may remain still until its energy will go to an end shining and rolling down to the ground if and when gravitational forces will prevail.
Otherwise lights will disappear in the air as soon as the mix is burned off (i.e. inside energy ends after the Self Contained Energy Bag is broken). On the other hand, one more electron channel coming from ionosphere may perturbate our area, inducing SCEB/Light to re-start again with an acceleration according with the electron density difference between the old (almost zero) and the new channel/area. This new electron duct should improve the HP brightness and its flavours in a proportional way with the original particles still inside SCEB/HP.

Summing up: If one area on a given electronic current will prevail, we'll observe the light accelerate toward that direction with acceleration in close relationship to the ED ratio between the different currents in different directions.
The relationship is the one between the channel (with its electron density) where light lie at a given time and all around channels (with their own electron density). Looking at Electron Density as HP fuel we can even say that when they exhaust the fuel in their vicinity, they drift toward regions with more.
Optical phenomena will move itself accordingly with electron fluctuation actually found in the areas where it will travel.

Confirm such a hypothesis may be possible using the technique of measure the ED per meter-cube or Total Electron Content (TEC) per square-meter to monitor ionospheric irregularities in the Hessdalen region (around 63° 78' North-11°17' East). Anyway, until now, few data are available for ED or TEC in that specific area (16). Just TEC from Tromsø (69.6600 North - 18.9400 East) and Ny Alesund (78.9200 North -11.8700 East) are available on a regular basis, though Tromsø pubblic information suffered severe discontinuities lately (16). One more good information may arise from Riometer in the Scandinavian region, for the reported electron missing in the higher ionosphere regions, by natural an manmade activity.
A 1997 research done in the Southern hemisphere by Yue-Jin Wang, P. Wilkinson and J. Caruana at IPS Radio and Space Services, gave interesting result. GPS satellites orbit with semi-synchronous periods, their positions is repeated from one day to the next with roughly four minutes shift due to sidereal motion. In this way we can observe that the most severe phase TEC fluctuations occurred at a latitude approximately the same as the station (63ºS Dip latitude), lasting for more than one hour (9).
That Latitude is in good accord with the Hessdalen one, though on the opposite hemisphere, and the time TEC phase fluctuations last may resemble some of the longer, in time, Hessdalen phenomena.
Southern data as well as Northern data from Trømso (two radar frequency: 931 MHz and 2.800 Hz) (13) and Ny Alesund, Far Northern Norway, (16), seems to confirm that ED higher quantity and Hessdalen Phenomena have something to share with the Winter solstice.
It may be a starting point, since HP has always been a complex phenomena to investigate with useful comparisons with other physical happening and data.

Now it seems we have a path to follow comparing data from ED, powerful manmade HF radar emission, SCEBs and HP. Stronger importance seems yield electron temperature and precipitation, induced by very powerful emission from ground stations worldwide, Norway enclosed. Transmitting stations may create the needed electron situation (temperature, precipitation, fluctuations and higher charge) breaking SCEBs and triggering HP.
Any season may be the right one, when powerful manmade emissions are working, though the more successful, are likely the ones done around the winter solstice. A joint activity: natural and no natural. But the very focal point, at this time, should be Electron Density/SCEB relationship: is this the triggering subject?

Just food for thought.

1) EMBLA 2001 : THE OPTICAL MISSION, by Massimo Teodorani, Erling Strand and Bjørn Gitle Hauge.
http://www.itacomm.net/PH/, (October 2001);

1a) ANALISI dei DATI di FENOMENI LUMINOSI ANOMALI a HESSDALEN, by M. Teodorani and E. Strand; http://www.itacomm.net/PH (2000);

2) EMBLA 2001: VLF RADIO REPORT, by Flavio Gori
http://www.loscrittoio.it/Pages/FG-1201.html and
http://www.itacomm.net/PH , (December 2001);

2a) A VLF/ELF proposal for on the field research at Hessdalen, by Flavio Gori, Proceeding Hessdalen Project at Medicina (May 1999);

3) EMBLA_2002: AN OPTICAL AND GROUND SURVEY IN HESSDALEN, by Massimo Teodorani and Gloria Nobili.
http://www.hessdalen.org/reports/EMBLA_2002_2.pdf, (0ctober 2002);

4) PROJECT HESSDALEN, by Erling Strand
http://www.hessdalen.org/reports/ProjectHessdalen-story-April2002.pdf, (April 2002);

5) HESSDALEN IS A NORWEGIAN VALLEY, by Flavio Gori
http://www.loscrittoio.it/Pages/FG0901.html

http://www.itacomm.net/PH, (September 2001);

6) VLF INTERFEROMETRY, By Umran S. Inan, STAR Lab at Stanford University (June 2001),
http://www-star.stanford.edu/~vlf/interferometry/VLFinfer.html

6a) POLAR AERONOMY AND RADIO SCIENCE (PARS)
ULF/ELF/VLF PROJECT by U. S. Inan and T. F. Bell from STAR Laboratory, Stanford University
http://www-star.stanford.edu/~vlf/pars/pars.htm#A.2%20Troms%20Experiments

7) WHISTLERS AND RELATED PHENOMENA, by R.A. Helliwell:, Stanford University Press 1965.

8) ESA SPACE SCIENCE DEPARTMENT, Noordwijk, The Netherlands

9) USING GPS TO MONITOR IONOSPHERIC IRREGULARITIES IN THE SOUTHERN HIGHLATITUDE REGION by Yue-Jin Wang, P. Wilkinson and J. Caruana (1997), IPS Radio and Space Services (Australia)

10) ON THE FIELD 2002 REPORT by Matteo Leone (2003), under development

11) LIGHTNING-INDUCED ELECTRON PRECIPITATION
H. D. Voss*, W. L. Imhof*, M. Walt*, J. Mobilia*, E. E. Gaines*, J. B. Reagan*, U. S. Inan**, R. A. Helliwell*, D. L. Carpenter**, J. P. Katsufrakis** & H. C. Chang**
* Lockheed Palo Alto Research Laboratory, Palo Alto, California 94303. USA ** STAR Laboratory, Stanford University, California 94305, USA
20 December 1984 © Macmillan Journals Ltd.. 1985

12) SATELLITE OBSERVATIONS OF LIGHTNING-INDUCED ELECTRON PRECIPITATION
H. D. Voss, M. Walt, W. L. Imhof, J. Mobilia, and U. S. Inan
1. Taylor University, Upland, IN
2. STAR Laboratory, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305

13) A COMPARISON STUDY OF THE AURORAL LOWER THERMOSPHERIC NEUTRAL WINDS DERIVED BY THE EISCAT UHF RADAR AND THE TROMSØ MEDIUM FREQUENCY RADAR
S. Nozawa,1 A. Brekke,2 A. Manson,3 C. M. Hall,2 C. Meek3 K. Morise,1 S. Oyama,4 K. Dobashi,5 and R. Fujii1
JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH, VOL. 107, NO. A8, 10.1029/2000JA007581, 2002

14) THE ELECTRON DENSITY DISTRIBUTION IN THE POLAR CAP:
ITS VARIABILITY WITH SEASONS, AND ITS RESPONSE TO MAGNETIC ACTIVITY
Harri Laakso and Réjean Grard
ESA SPACE SCIENCE DEPARTMENT, NOORDWIJK, THE NETHERLANDS

15) HESSDALEN: TECHNICAL REPORT, by Erling Strand, 1984
http://www.hessdalen.org;

16) SPACE WEATHER WEB - Facilities for Radio Communications Users Vertical TEC across Scandinavia for the last 24 hours
http://ionosphere.rcru.rl.ac.uk/scandinavia.html

17) Long Lived light phenomena in the atmosphere, by B.M. Smirnov 1994, Physics ­ Uspekhi 37 (5) 517 ­ 521.

18) Spherical formations in the Atmosphere as a physical phenomenon, by A.I. Mesenyashin, 1995 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

19) Hessdalen 2002: I.C.P.H. Mission Update: Analogies and Speculations, by Flavio Gori 2/2003: http://www.loscrittoio.it/Pages/FG-0203.html

Renzo Cabassi and ICPH/CIPH (Italian Committee for Projetc Hessdalen or Comitato Italiano per il Progetto Hessdalen), for their friendship, assistance and financial support to let me be in Hessdalen;

Matteo Leone a very friendly mate and great on the field researcher;

Stelio Montebugnoli for his radar instrument and very precious advises;

Gloria Nobili and Massimo Teodorani for their scientific discussion and advises;

Marsha Adams of Times Research Inc., a great researcher, involved in a lot of fields: VLF, chemical, optics and radon;

Erling Strand, leader of Hessdalen Project, for the informations he gave me during my days in the valley and during data analysis.

Luciano Cianchi, Luigi Ciraolo and Paolo Moretti, all from CNR-IROE-Firenze; as well as Cesare Tagliabue, I5TGC; for their scientific support before and after my Hessdalen times;

Dennis Gallagher from NASA Marshall Space Flight Center for his scientific advises;

William Taylor and William Pine from NASA-INSPIRE Project, Goddard Space Flight Center for their scientifical assistance during data analysis;

Stanislav Klimov, I.K.I., Russian Space Research Institute, for his scientific advises;

Peder and Sig Skogaas for their lovely friendship and important help to coordinate our work with the inhabitants, a very important item;

Jonathan Tisdall AFTENPOSTEN daily Journalist, for his help in find out news about the valley and Norway;

Ellin and Birger Brattas, Bjiorne and Hallfrid Lillevold, Ruth Mary Moe with her daughter Randi, Hessdalen valley residents, for giving us so many informations about lights in the valley and how inhabitants feel about, even in the previous times.