Two simple methods for the determination of the resonance frequencies of magnetic field lines

It has previously been shown that application of the “gradient method” to simultaneous recordings of geomagnetic pulsation fields at two stations on a meridian can determine the resonant frequency of a magnetic field line, and that the distribution of resonant frequencies along the meridian can be calculated from three stations. It is shown here that if the D-component spectrum of the pulsations is taken to be a representation of the driving wave, the same information can be derived from one and two station measurements, respectively, albeit with some slight loss of accuracy. It is also suggested that the empirical method of inferring the intensity of the interplanetary magnetic field from the measurement of the period of ground magnetic pulsations would be more accurate if D-component observations only were used.