Abstract. Recordings of ELF-VLF waves with the right-hand (RH) and the left-hand (LH) circular polarization were made in Northern Finland. Analysis showed a difference between the RH and LH polarized waves. A pronounced maximum of the wave amplitude was observed at the first critical frequency of the Earth-ionosphere waveguide (the first transverse resonance) around 1.6–2.3 kHz. The wave had the circular LH polarization at this maximum. To interpret observations, we computed the characteristics of the waveguide modes by using the full wave solution in the night model of the ionosphere. Computations show that the spectral maximum at the first transverse resonance frequency arises from a small absorption of the LH polarized radio wave in the magnetized ionosphere plasma, forming the upper boundary of the Earth-ionosphere waveguide.