The diurnal-seasonal variations of amplitude are caused by variation of the equivalent reflection height and the reflection characteristics of the D-region during 24 h. The Fig. 6a shows that amplitudes of signal are typically higher and more variable at night (different shades of blue color) than during the day (equal turquoise color). At dawn and dusk amplitude on DHO/23.40 kHz radio signal passes through the minimum producing sharp border between nighttime and daytime amplitude values (green gradually turns to turquoise color). The dawn crossing (left sides of Fig. 6a and 6b) is sharper than the dusk crossing. The recorded VLF amplitude can be higher or lower at night, depending on the path, due to the summation of the modes. It is characterized by periodic and repeatable variations of amplitude as the dawn-dusk terminator moves along a DHO-BEL path.
For better interpretation of measured data we simulated VLF propagation under normal ionospheric condition. We selected date: 20 January 2009 and time 06:16 UT to calculate main propagation parameters of DHO/23.40 kHz radio signal from transmitter along path to Belgrade using the LWPC code. The modeling of VLF radio signal propagation in the Earth–ionosphere waveguide in which the illumination smoothly changes is carried out and results are given in Table 3. Numerical values of: ground conductivity σ, solar zenith angle χ, sharpness β, reflection height H′, electron density at H′and number of modes as a function of distance from transmitter along path to receiver are presented in Table 3. Analysis of data shows that electron density increases, reflection height moves down in the D-region and the number of discrete modes reduces from nn=18 to nd=7. The consequence of the occurrence of all these processes in the waveguide is that amplitude of VLF signal during daytime has smaller value than during the night.