From a basic discussion of the behaviour of VLF waves propagated almost perpendicularly to the earth 's magnetic field, the lower hybrid resonance (LHR) frequency is seen as a boundary between compressional Alfv én waves and electrostatic sound waves. The disparity of the wavelengths involved leads to a fundamental difference between the characteristics of the AC electric field far from and close to the source.

Some detailed observations of this field are presented, from an experiment that used both a mother-daughter technique for large distance measurements and a quadrupole probe technique for the local field, and that was performed in the equatorial ionosphere. The frequency dispersion of quasi-transverse (QT) waves received at a large distance and the amplitude-frequency response of the VLF quadrupole probe are compared with a theoretical analysis for the warm ionospheric plasma. From this analysis, the possibility is established of using the properties of fast and slow waves in active experiments, for measuring simultaneously the LHR, the electron density, a hybrid ion-electron thermal velocity and possibly the plasma drift velocity.