Schumann's resonances: A particular example of a spherical resonant cavity

Abstract

The resonances between the Earth as one boundary and the ionosphere as the other, known as Schumann's resonances, represent an interesting example of a spherical cavity. We consider a simple model in which the boundaries behave as perfect conductors and then take into account the finite conductivity of the boundaries. Numerical results are obtained for both models and compared with available data. Good agreement is shown to exist between the analytical results and the experimental values when finite conductivity of the walls is considered.