A new station for monitoring electromagnetic fields in Duronia (Italy): experimental setup and first results

Abstract

Since the end of 2007 a new electromagnetic field monitoring station has been in operation in Central Italy in the area of a village called Duronia. The station was created in the framework of the MEM (Magnetic and Electric fields Monitoring) Project composed of a team headed by the Abruzzo region. The main target of the MEM Project is to create in the Adriatic Area a network of observatories to monitor the environmental electromagnetic signals in the frequency band from 0.001Hz to 100kHz (ULF-ELF-VLF). The peculiarity of the Duronia installation is the low electromagnetic background noise of the site and the low noise of the instrumentation. Here we show the experimental setup, with a brief discussion on the installed instrumentation and on the preliminaresults obtained in the first months of operation. The research activity is mainly focused on the analysis of the spectral structure of the Schumann Resonance in the range of frequencies [5.0-35.0]Hz, and the Ionospheric Alfvén Resonator in the range of frequencies [0.1-7.0]Hz and their evolution in time. Another target concerns the long-term monitoring of local magnetic field anomalies possiblelated to the local geodynamical processes.