A new model of the physical processes associated with subionospheric VLF signal perturbations caused by lightning-induced electron precipitation (LEP) bursts is developed to diagnose the state of the lower ionosphere (e.g., electron number density and rate coefficients for various chemical reactions) on the basis of measurements of VLF recovery signatures. The model accounts for the energy spectrum of the electron bursts precipitated by lightning-generated whistlers, the chemical relaxation of enhanced secondary ionization in the nighttime D region due to lEP bursts, and quantitatively treats the resultant effects on propagation of the VLF signal in the Earth-ionosphere waveguide. Application of the model to experimental data obtained for the VLF propagation path from NPM station (Hawaii) to Palmer station (Antarctica) indicates that effective electron detachment rate &ggr;, enhanced secondary ionization profile (e.g., energy content of LEP bursts), as well as the ambient electron density distribution, may be estimated using observed subionospheric VLF recovery signatures. The effective detachment rate was identified as ~10-18 N s-1, where N is total number density of neutrals. Model indicates in particular that the attachment-detachment processes play the dominant role in recovery of subionospheric VLF signal perturbations on timescales ~100 s, and that the observed perturbations of the NPM-Palmer signal correspond to LEP bursts consisting of relatively soft (<250 keV) electrons. ¿ American Geophysical Union 1994