EE0113

ATMOSPHERIC ELECTRICITY
______________________________________________________________________________
1 Mr.B.SRIKANTH 2 Mr.S.RAJSHEKHAR

Abstract:
Owing to the somewhat explosive development of the science of atmospheric electricity during the past
decade this article covers a broad field of activity. The article begins with a description and discussion of the work
that has been performed to understand the electrical properties of the basic materials involved in generating
processes in the atmosphere. The aspects covered in this paper are the fair-weather conditions, cluster ions
concept, spherical capacitor theory, and the major applications of atmospheric electricity. Even the Fundamental
problem of atmospheric electricity and its solution have been dealt with. The sections covered also include the
electrification of the upper atmosphere and space, and a consideration of the global electrical circuit and its related
electrical `balance sheet'.

Keywords:
Cluster-ion concept, Spherical capacitor theory, Electrical balance sheet, Global electrical circuit.

Conclusion:
It would be hard to build an array of lighting rods to capture periodic thunderstorm electricity. The biggest
hurdle would really be creating power plant infrastructure that could survive the harsh surges created by lightning
strikes, but even that seems possible with current technology and materials. Electrical and building design
engineers could come up with an innovative way to make it work. Specially designed buffer/insulation and
transformer materials could be used to safely capture and harness the massive amounts of electricity generated
during a lighting strike, and transfer it to large storage device for later use.

1. III/ IV B.Tech 2. III/ IV B.Tech

D.V.R College of Engg. D.V.R College of Engg
srikanth613@yahoo.com raju644@yahoo.com

What is Atmospheric Electricity?
Atmospheric electricity abounds in the environment;
some traces of it are found less than four feet from
the surface of the earth, but on attaining greater
height it becomes more apparent. It was only after
the discovery of the electricity in the early 1700s that
the electrical nature of the earth’s atmosphere begun
to be revealed. In 1708, William Wall, watching the
spark of a discharge from a charged piece of amber,
observed that it similar to lightning. Around the
middle of the century, after the discovery of the first
electrical properties of matter, it became evident that
lightning should be a form of electricity associated in
some way with thunderstorms.
Atmospheric electricity is the regular
diurnal(daily) variations of the Earth's atmospheric
electromagnetic network.
It’s the study of electric charges and currents in
the atmosphere. Fossils suggest that the terrestrial
Introduction:
Benjamin Franklin was the first to design an
experiment to prove the electrical nature of lightning.
In
July 1750, Franklin proposed that electricity could be
drawn from a cloud by a tall metal pole. If the pole
was insulated from ground, and an observer brought
a grounded wire held by an
Isulating wax handle near the pole, then a spark
would jump from the pole to the wire when an
electrified cloud was nearby. If this was the case, it
would be proved that the clouds were electrically
charged and, consequently, that lightning was also
an electrical phenomenon. In June 1752, Franklin
conducted another experiment with the same
proposal, his famous experiment using a kite.
Instead of use a metal pole he used a kite, since it
could reach a greater elevation than the pole and
could be flown anywhere. One more time sparks
jumped from a key tied to the bottom of the kite string
to his hands. This proved that lightning was also an
electrical phenomenon.
Fair Weather Condition:
L. G. Lemonnier discovered that even when there
are no clouds, the so-called fair weather condition,
a weak electrification exists in the atmosphere.
He also found some evidence that the electrification
varied from night to day. In 1775, G. Beccaria
confirmed the existence of a diurnal variation in the
fair weather electrification and determined that the
polarity of the charge in the atmosphere in fair
weather condition was positive and that it reversed to
negative when thunderstorms were nearby.
Atmospheric layers:
Relationship of the atmosphere and ionosphere
The conductivity of the atmosphere increases
exponentially with altitude. The amplitudes of the
electric and magnetic components depend on
season, latitude, and height above the sea level. The
greater the altitude the more atmospheric electricity
abounds. The exosphere is the uppermost layer of
the atmosphere and is estimated to be 500 km to
1000 km above the Earth's surface, and its upper
boundary at about 10,000 km. The thermosphere
(upper atmosphere) is the layer of the Earth's
atmosphere directly above the mesosphere and
directly below the exosphere. Within this layer,
ultraviolet radiation causes ionization. The
mesosphere (middle atmosphere) is the layer of the
Earth's atmosphere that is directly above the
stratosphere and directly below the thermosphere.
The mesosphere is located about 50-80/85km above
Earth's surface. The stratosphere (middle
atmosphere) is a layer of Earth's atmosphere that is
stratified in temperature and is situated between
about 10 km and 50 km altitude above the surface at
moderate latitudes, while at the poles it starts at
about 8 km altitude. The stratosphere sits directly
above the troposphere and directly below the
mesosphere. The troposphere (lower atmosphere) is
the densest layer of the atmosphere.
The presence of the earth’s surface influences
the concentration of ions, aerosols and radioactive
particles, through its control over the wind,
temperature and water vapor distributions. Such
influence is dominated by the effects of turbulence.
The layer in which this influence is felt is called the
planetary boundary layer or exchange layer. The
depth of this layer is highly variable, ranging from
tens of meters to 3 km above the ground.
Cluster ions Concept:
The lower and middle atmosphere is weak
conductors due to the presence of trace
concentrations of ions. Ions are created by ionization
of the neutral molecules of air, generally nitrogen and
oxygen, by primary and secondary cosmic rays, and
by particles and radiation produced by decay of
radioactive substances in the soil, like uranium and
thorium, and in the air, like the gas radon. As a result
of the ionization of the molecules, free electrons and
positive ions, in general singly charged, are created.
The electrons are, then, quickly attached to other
neutral molecules to produce negative ions. The
production of ions by cosmic rays varies with altitude
and latitude. The production of ions due to the decay
of radioactive substances depends on the soil
characteristics. In particular, in the oceans it is
several orders of magnitude smaller than in the
continents. In general, the average ionization (ion-
pair production) rate over the continent due to
radioactive substances is predominant on that due to
cosmic rays below 1 km. Above 1 km, the ionization
rate is dominated by the cosmic ray source. The
ionization rate is also sensitive to meteorological
conditions, and geomagnetic and solar activity.
Occasionally, the ionization created by energetic
particles during times of high geomagnetic and solar
activity can dominate that produced by cosmic rays
above 20 km. Also, the 11-year solar sunspot cycle
produces a variation in the ionization rate in the
atmosphere. The variation becomes more
pronounced with increasing height or geomagnetic
latitude. After the ions are formed, they react with
neutral molecules and attach to water molecules
from the water vapor always present in the
atmosphere, forming cluster ions. These cluster
ions are relatively stable, and constitute most of the
ions of molecular size, also called small ions.
Examples of such ions are H3O+ (H2O) and O2-
(H2O)n. When small ions attach to aerosol particles,
they form large ions.
During steady state conditions, the concentration
of small ions in a given time and place is a result of
the balance between the production (ionization rate)
and destruction of ions. Small ions are destroyed by
recombination between them and by attachment to
large ions and aerosol particles. The total average
concentration of small ions over the continents as
over the oceans is roughly the same and of the order
of 1000 cm-3, even though the ionization rate is
smaller over the oceans due to the absence of
radioactive elements. This fact, however, is
compensated by the smaller loss rate due to the
lower aerosol concentration. There are more positive
small ions than negative ones, and the difference
produces a net positive charge in the atmosphere.
The existence of a net positive charge near the
earth’s surface implies that additional processes of
ion production should exist, since the ionization
process produces equal concentrations of negative
and positive ions.
Charge Separation:
Atmospheric electricity involves phenomena which
are connected with the separation of electric charges
in the sub-ionospheric atmosphere (below about 100
km height). In the ionosphere and magnetosphere
there occur strong electric currents originating
directly from the solar-terrestrial interaction; in the
lower atmosphere, there flows a much weaker
electric current in the so-called global circuit, which is
maintained by the thunderstorm activity.
Charge separation takes place in three ways:
Thermodynamically
In a thundercloud, small ice crystals collide
with rime-growing graupels; the crystals gain
positive charge, the graupels negative (the
microscopic mechanism is not yet well
known).
Convection in the thundercloud carries the
ice crystals to the cloud top, the heavier
graupels staying in the mid-cloud: a
macroscopic dipole structure forms.
By radiation ionization
Cosmic and radioactive radiation ionize air,
and equal numbers of molecular-size
positive and negative small ions are formed;
air becomes (weakly) electrically conductive.
Small ions are also attached to airborne dust
(aerosol), which thus regularizes the number
of small ions.
By collision ionization
Lightning and other discharges in the
thundercloud ionize air temporarily into
electrically conducting channels.
Outer space and near space:
Electric currents created in sunward ionosphere.
In outer space, the magnetopause flows along the
boundary between the region around an
astronomical object (called the "magnetosphere")
and surrounding plasma, in which electric
phenomena are dominated or organized by this
magnetic field. Earth is surrounded by a
magnetosphere, as are the magnetized planets
Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Mercury is
magnetized, but too weakly to trap plasma. Mars has
patchy surface magnetization. The magnetosphere is
the location where the outward magnetic pressure of
the Earth's magnetic field is counterbalanced by the
solar wind, a plasma.
Most of solar particles are deflected to either side of
the magnetopause, much like water is deflected
before the bow of a ship. However, some particles
become trapped within the Earth's magnetic field and
form radiation belts.
Photoionization:
Photoionization is the physical process in which an
incident photon ejects one or more electrons from an
atom, ion or molecule.
The ejected electrons, known as photoelectrons,
carry information about their pre-ionized states. For
example, a single electron can have a kinetic energy
equal to the energy of the incident photon minus the
electron binding energy of the state it left. Photons
with energies less than the electron binding energy
may be absorbed or scattered but will not
photoionise the atom or ion.
Fair-weather atmospheric electricity:
Fair weather electricity deals with the electric field
and the electrical current in the atmosphere, and the
conductivity of the air.
The discovery of the fair weather circuit followed
Ben Franklin's demonstration that lightning is caused
by electricity. Later experimenters showed that clear,
calm air carries an electrical current which, it turns
out is the return path for the electrical display we
know as lightning.
Atmospheric electricity is like a massive
photographic flash. An electrical charge is built up, a
switch is closed, and electrons barge across a gas,
ionizing it and producing light. But a flash is a
complete circuit. In the case of the Earth, the
atmosphere completes the circuit.
The thundercloud charge centres, accumulating
tens of coulombs of electricity, are discharged mainly
by lightning: cloud flashes (most abundant) cause
mutual neutralization of the centers; the lower centre
is also discharged to the ground - by negative ground
flashes - and charges up the earth (the positive
centre is discharged similarly, but by a smaller
amount). An excess charge will be left in the upper
positive centre, and it leaks by conduction to the
surrounding air, about one ampere per thunderstorm
cell. Because of the exponentially increasing
conductivity, most of this leak current is guided to the
ionosphere, where it is distributed over the globe and
charges the upper atmosphere to a potential of about
300 kV with respect to the ground. This "ionospheric
potential" maintains the so-called fair-weather
current, whose density is about 2 pA/m2 (Pico
amperes per square meter). According to Ohm's law,
the fair-weather current density and the electric
conductivity are associated with a downward electric
field, about 100 V/m near the ground. The number of
simultaneously active thunder cells ("thunderstorms")
over the globe is about 1000-2000, so the whole
circuit carries a current of about 1000 amperes.
Why does not the (fair-weather) atmospheric electric
field cause a shock of 200 V to a standing human?
Because the human is grounded in practice; the
poorly conducting air cannot charge up a grounded
object. Below a thundercloud, where the ground-level
electric field may be tens of kV/m, the situation is
different - but then the threat comes from a lightning
strike.
Carnegie Curve:
The fair weather electric field presents diurnal and
seasonal variations. The typical diurnal variation of
the fair weather electric field as a function of
universal time was first clearly identified by the
measurements on the research vessel Carnegie in
the 1920s. The so-called Carnegie curve is a result
of hourly values of the electric field averaged over
many days. The Carnegie curve is very difficult to
reproduce at land stations due to local processes
such as convection currents and aerosol variations.
In general, fluctuations in space charge density
associated with these processes within the planetary
boundary layer have an effect on electric field
roughly comparable in magnitude to that of the
Carnegie curve. If local variations at land stations are
removed by averaging processes, the electric field
on the ground indeed shows a universal time
dependence similar to that of the Carnegie curve.
The fair weather electric field also shows a seasonal
variation. Even though the overall pattern appears
much the same of the universal time variation, there
are small seasonal differences in the hour of
maximum field intensity, indicating changes in the
longitude of maximum thunderstorm activity. Also,
the average field shows seasonal variations with
maximum values in the spring and summer in the
Northern Hemisphere, reflecting the fact that there is
more thunderstorms in these seasons in the
Northern Hemisphere than in the same seasons in
the Southern Hemisphere. This, in turn, is a result of
the fact that there is more land in the Northern
Hemisphere.
Fundamental problem of atmospheric
electricity:
In 1804, P. Erman, suggested for the first time that
the earth should be negatively charged. In 1860,
Lord Kelvin put forward the argument that positive
charges must exist in the atmosphere to explain the
electrification in fair weather. In 1785, C. A.
Coulomb discovered that the air is conductive,
observing that a well insulated conductor exposed to
air gradually loses its charge. It was then estimated
that the earth would lose almost all of its charge to
the conductive atmosphere in less than an hour
unless the supply were replenished. This raised what
has become known as the fundamental problem of
atmospheric electricity, that is, how the earth’s
negative charge is maintained.
Solution:
The first attempt to solve this problem was
suggested by C. T. R. Wilson in 1920. Wilson
developed the hypothesis, known as the spherical
capacitor theory that the earth’s surface and an
equipotential layer at some height must behave like
plates of a spherical capacitor. The equipotential
layer was firstly termed electrosphere and was
supposed to be somewhere between 40 and 60 km.
Later, it was considered to be located coincident with
the ionosphere.
Applications:
1. Application in high energy cosmic ray air shower
detection:
 Near ground atmospheric electricity was studied 2. A Lighting Harnessing Power
experimentally. The main objective was to gain more Plant
understanding of this particular aspect of
atmospheric phenomena, while testing the possible
application to cosmic ray research. The results in
atmospheric electricity show that there are certain
patterns in ion grouping such as the size and lifetime.
The average lifetime of ion group is 0.7 seconds and
the average size is about 10 meters at our
experimental site. Ultrahigh energy cosmic ray air
showers should create sizable slow atmospheric
electric pulses according to theoretical calculations.
Preliminary studies on air showers with total particle
number N equal or greater than 105 (1015 eV) have
yielded strong evidence that slow atmospheric This concept is perhaps not as impractical as it
current pulses are associated with air showers. The once was. The main limiting factor of implementing a
theory and the experiment agree with each other lightning capturing scheme such as this was the
fairly well when averaged over large numbers of inability to be able to store large amounts of
events. With the current experimental arrangement, electricity for later use. However, new Utility Scale
when the air shower exceeds a certain size, the Battery technology or other energy storage
system response saturates. Therefore it is extremely technologies such as Flywheels or Capacitors could
desirable in future research that the counter array be be used to store the electricity captured from
designed for a much higher threshold level, since this lightning in massive quantities, for later grid use.
prototype experiment indicates that interesting data Obviously, a lightning capturing power plant would
would be obtained. Another reason for further only be practical in regions with frequent
experimental research being directed toward thunderstorms, such as Florida.
ultrahigh energy, and higher, is to establish a
calibration of the slow atmospheric electric signals
generated by cosmic rays as a function of primary
cosmic ray energy and core location.

This type of slow atmospheric electric signal, if fully

understood and calibrated, offers a new and
potentially less expensive technique to observe
ultrahigh energy cosmic ray events, which hold some
fundamental keys to the knowledge of the universe
on a large scale.

References:

[1]The Atmospheric Electricity Journal by Basil

Ferdinand

[2]Phenomena in Environmental Electricity by

Reinhold Reiter