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CHAPTER 2
THE ELECTRIC STRUCTURE OF THE ATMOSPHERE
2.1 IONS
The existence of ions in the atmosphere is the fundamental reason for
atmospheric electricity. An absence of ions would mean zero electric
field in the atmosphere and most probably no thunderstorms or
lightning. The concept of positive and negative ions as charge carriers
in the atmosphere was first put forward by J. Elster and H. Geitel
(1899) in order to explain the electric conductivity of air. Much work has
since been done on ions and their role in atmospheric electric
phenomena. Today we know there are mainly three classes of ions,
namely small ions, intermediate ions and large ions. Most important
are the small ions since their higher mobility allows them to take a more
active part in the transfer of charge throughout the atmosphere. The
mobility of ions can be measured in metres per second per volt per metre
which signifies the velocity that an ion will reach when subjected to an
electric field of one volt per metre. For small ions the mobility is of the
order of 0.0001 with a slight edge of the negative ion over its positive
counterpart. In fact, the negative to positive mobility ratio of small
ions is about 1.25 (Wåhlin 1985) which is a paradox since negative ions
are believed to be more massive than positive ions. One explanation
(Papoular, 1965) is that for part of its lifetime a negative ion is really an
ATMOSPHERIC ELECTROSTATICS
16
electron jumping from molecule to molecule. Molecules such as NO and
NO2 are believed to dominate the negative small ion population while
oxonium and water might make up the positive small ions in the
atmosphere. Their true molecular structure and mass are not well
known because it is difficult to get spectroscopic mass analysis of small
ions in the lower atmosphere. The problem is their relative short life
time, about 100 seconds, which is much shorter than the transit time
required for molecules or ions to reach the source end of a mass
analyser.
The ionization in the lower atmosphere is mostly caused by cosmic
rays and natural radioactivity. Ions are also produced in and near
thunderclouds by lightning and corona processes. Cosmic rays originate
from solar flares and other galactic objects such as supernovas and
exploding stars. One interesting thought is; do stellar events affect our
lives here on earth? We know that cosmic rays are by far the major ion
producers in the lower atmosphere and if thunderstorms need ions to
feed on in order to charge, we certainly would not have thunderstorms
if there were no cosmic rays. Ancient man would not have had access to
fires and the many thousands deaths each year from lightning strokes
would have been avoided.
Cosmic rays originate from deep space and usually consist of very
high-velocity atoms that have been stripped of their orbiting electrons.
There are also electrons present in space that travel with near-light
velocities, but such particles are usually absorbed at very high altitudes
in the earth's atmosphere. However, heavy cosmic rays penetrate the
atmosphere quite far and often reach the earth's surface. During such
an encounter numerous secondary electrons are produced (electron
showers) along its track from ionizing collisions with atmospheric
molecules. The secondary electrons in turn might ionize a fair amount
of molecules themselves before they slow down and attach themselves to
atmospheric molecules to form negative ions. The result is that one
cosmic particle could be responsible for the creation of as many as one
THE ELECTRICAL STRUCTURE OF THE ATMOSPHERE 17
billion ion pairs. Fig. 7 shows the rate of ion production by cosmic rays
as a function of altitude (Wåhlin 1994). The average production
Fig. 7 Ion production as function of altitude.
rate at sea level is about ten million ion pairs per cubic metre per
second. However, the average ion population at any given time is nearly
one hundred times more, and ion mobility with altitude as air gets
thinner has a drastic effect on the electric structure of the atmosphere.
Typical conductivity data as a function of altitude are shown in Fig. 8.
The conductivity is the inverse of specific resistance and is usually
measured with a Gerdien cylinder (Gerdien 1905). The Gerdien
apparatus consists of a cylinder with a coaxial mounted electrode (see
Fig. 9). Air is drawn through the cylinder at a velocity of a few metres
per second by means of a fan. The centre electrode is biased to a few
volts via a sensitive electrometer. The amount of current registered on
ATMOSPHERIC ELECTROSTATICS
18
the electrometer relates to the amount of ions per unit volume of air.
Care must be taken not to over-bias the inner
Fig. 8 Conductivity as a function of altitude (Rocket data).
electrode in order to avoid saturation currents. When properly
calibrated, the Gerdien instrument can read both the positive and
Fig. 9 Gerdien conductivity apparatus.
THE ELECTRICAL STRUCTURE OF THE ATMOSPHERE 19
negative conductivity of air depending on the polarity applied to the
centre electrode. A typical ion current plot is shown in Fig. 10 where
two identical Gerdien cylinders were tested, the only difference being
Fig. 10 Typical ion current readings from a Gerdien cylinder.
that one was made of stainless steel and the other of aluminium. Three
important features appear from the results shown in Fig. 10. First, the
slopes of the two curves are different for negative and positive ion
currents. This is due to the difference in ion mobility between negative
and positive ions; therefore, the ratio of the slopes equals the ratio of the
ion mobilities. Secondly, there is still a negative ion current going to
the centre electrode when the electrode is at zero volt bias. Thirdly, the
negative ion current at zero bias is higher for a Gerdien instrument
made of aluminium than stainless steel. In order to obtain a zero ion
current on the electrometer one needs to bias the stainless steel at 0.4
volts and the aluminium at about 1 volt. These results led to the
discovery of electrochemical potentials in the atmosphere (Wåhlin 1971)
which appear on material surfaces in contact with ionized air. The
ATMOSPHERIC ELECTROSTATICS
20
reason why stainless steel and aluminium have to be biased at
different positive potentials, to achieve zero ion current, is to cancel out
Fig. 11 Electrochemical equilibrium potentials for different materials as a
function of ion concentration ratios.
the electrochemical or oxidaion-reduction potentials which are
characteristic of each material and appear when exposed to an ionized
environment. The effects of contact potentials are eliminated since both
the inner and outer electrodes of the Gerdien instrument are made of
THE ELECTRICAL STRUCTURE OF THE ATMOSPHERE 21
the same material. The graphs in Fig. 11 show electrochemical
potentials on different materials as a function of positive to negative
ion concentration ratio. Electrochemical and contact potentials will be
discussed further in Chapter 3.
2.2 THE FAIRWEATHER ELECTRIC FIELD
The fairweather electric field discovered by Lemonnier and Beccaria
(see Chapter 1.2) is almost entirely due to the excess of positive ions
over negative ions in the atmosphere.
The fairweather field is best understood if we assume that the earth's
surface has absorbed a certain number of negative ions from the
atmospheric ion pair population. It will create a slight excess of
negative charge on the earth's surface with an equal excess of opposite
charge in the form of positive ions left behind in the atmosphere. If we
imagine that each captured charge on the earth's surface will produce
Fig. 12 The fairweather electric field in the atmosphere.
ATMOSPHERIC ELECTROSTATICS
22
an electric field line which must terminate on a positive excess ion left
behind in the atmosphere one obtains a fairly accurate picture of the
electric fairweather field in the atmosphere, such as shown in Fig. 12.
The excess positive ions are more or less uniformly mixed in the lower 3
km of the atmosphere which, to the meteorologist, is known as the
"Austauch" or mixing region. The mixing is produced by convection
and eddy-diffusion and the ionic distribution follows the mixing
patterns of other constituents in the atmosphere such as radon for
example. Radon is a radioactive gas emitted by the earth's surface and
is constantly released into the atmosphere. Fig. 13 shows the vertical
Fig. 13 Relative distribution of radon atoms and excess positive ions as a
function of altitude.
distribution profile of excess positive ions compared to that of the radon
gas. The positive ion distribution is determined from electric field
measurement at varying altitudes and by applying Poisson's equation.
The radon profiles are obtained from airborne radioactive counters that
detect the daughter products of the decaying radon gas.
The number of field lines per unit surface area produced by the
positive charge or space charge above the earth's surface is also a
measure of the electric field strength. Obviously the electric field
strength reaches a maximum at the earth's surface since it contains the
largest number of field lines per unit area. The average field
THE ELECTRICAL STRUCTURE OF THE ATMOSPHERE
23
strength at the earth's surface is on the average 100 volts per metre and
decreases to less than 10 volts per metre at an altitude of 3 km. If one
integrates the electric field as a function of altitude one obtains the total
potential difference V at different heights. A typical value of V at 3 km
is 200 kV with respect to the earth's surface. The total charge Q on the
earth's surface is
Q AE
= e 0 , (1)
where A is the surface area of the Earth, E the electric field
strength at the surface and
e 0 the permittivity of free space
( e 0 12 1
8 85 10
= × -
. Farad m ). The total energy of the fairweather
field is
W VQ
= 12 . (2)
Fig. 14 shows the total electric energy, charge and potential in the
atmosphere as a function of altitude. More than 90% of the energy is
confined to an altitude below 3 km which together with the charge
distribution curve in Fig. 13 seems to indicate that convection and eddy
diffusion play a predominant part in the distribution of the fairweather
electric field and that the bulk of its energy is distributed throughout
the mixing region by the so called "Austauch Generator" (Kasemir
1950).
Fig. 14 Electric energy, charge and potential vs. altitude.
ATMOSPHERIC ELECTROSTATICS
24
One crucial question still remains to be answered. What causes the
positive space charge in the atmosphere and how is the opposite
negative charge maintained on the earth's surface? As mentioned
before there are two schools of thought on this
Fig. 15 Diurnal variations in the fairweather field compared to world-wide
convection.
one in which all thunderstorms around the world are believed to charge
the earth-atmosphere system (Wilson 1929) and a more recent theory
proposed by the author (1973) which considers the electrochemical
effect as a charging mechanism where negative atmospheric ions are
preferentially captured by the earth's surface leaving a space charge of
positive ions behind in the surrounding atmosphere. Both theories
might be supported by the evidence of a small systematic diurnal
variation in the fairweather field, which is believed to be related to the
world-wide atmospheric convection activity. The effect was first
discovered in Lappland 1905 by Simpson whose findings were later
augmented by Hoffmann (1923) and Mauchly (1923). The effect is
THE ELECTRICAL STRUCTURE OF THE ATMOSPHERE 25
illustrated in Fig. 15 where the average variation in the world-wide
potential gradient is compared to the estimated world-wide convection
activity at different times of day (by GMT). The top graph shows the
global variations in the electric field measured at sea in the absence of
local disturbances such as pollution, fog, etc. The top graph seems to
coincide with the lower graph which gives an estimate of the world-wide
convection activity produced by the heat of the sun during a diurnal
period. The steady convection over oceans, however, is thought to
smooth out the electric field variations as is evident from the top
graph. Before discussing the electrochemical and global thunderstorm
circuits as possible generators of the fairweather field, it is necessary to
examine the global leakage current and its implications.
2.3 THE AIR TO EARTH CURRENT
As already mentioned, the atmosphere is conducting and the earth's
electric potential or field must cause a current to flow in the
atmosphere. Since there is an excess of positive ions residing in the
atmosphere and an opposite negative charge bound on the earth's
surface, charge must flow to earth in the form of a positive ion current.
Direct measurements of electric currents in the atmosphere are
difficult if not impossible. Therefore, ion current values at different
altitudes are almost always computed indirectly from conductivity and
electric field data by the use of Ohm's law. Direct current
measurements can be made, however, at ground level by isolating a
portion of the earth's surface and measure the charge collected over a
given time. Several methods can be used (Wilson 1906, 1916, Simpson
1910, Mühleisen 1953 and Kasemir 1951) but in almost all cases the
indirect current gives a value often twice as large as the direct method
(Lutz 1939, Israel 1954). Whipple (1932) pointed out that the
discrepancy in currents can be explained by the fact that there is always
convection and eddy diffusion in the atmosphere which will mechanically
ATMOSPHERIC ELECTROSTATICS
26
move charges upwards in the atmosphere thus generating a mechanical
or convection current in the opposite direction of the leakage current
(the Austauch generator). As later explained, the question whether or
not the convection and leakage current on the average are equal is
crucial to the electrochemical charging theory and is a problem which
has not yet been settled.
From direct current measurements it is possible to estimate the total
fairweather current over the whole earth to be nearly 2000 amperes
which corresponds to a current density of about 4 10 12
×
amperes per
square metre. Other charge transfer mechanisms in the atmosphere of
importance are point discharges, precipitation currents and lightning
discharges.
2.4 POINT DISCHARGE CURRENTS
It is difficult to determine the total charge brought to the earth's surface
by means of point discharge currents under electrified clouds. Wormell
(1930) has made some estimates from the amount of charge brought
down by a single point over a period of 4 years. He made a guess that
the total point discharge current around the world brings negative
charge to the surface at a rate of about 1500 amperes which would
supply about 75% of the total fairweather leakage current. Other
investigators give slightly lower values for the average point discharge
current but not less than 25% of the fairweather current. The source of
point discharge currents are the electrified clouds which of course also
bring charge to ground by lightning. The point discharge current is, to
a certain extent, canceled by the large amount of positive lightning
flashes to ground and through positive charge reaching the earth's
surface by precipitation.
THE ELECTRICAL STRUCTURE OF THE ATMOSPHERE 27
2.5 PRECIPITATION CURRENTS
The electricity of precipitation has played an important role in
atmospheric research due to the belief that charging of precipitation
particles in some way must relate to whatever charging mechanism is
active in clouds. Paradoxically, this is not always true because the
final charge on a cloud drop is determined in the space between the
cloud base and ground and is usually of opposite sign to the charge of the
cloud base where it came from. This peculiar phenomenon is called the
mirror-image effect and is demonstrated in Fig. 16 by the two curves
which show the change in electric field strength and amount of
precipitation charge reaching the earth's surface as a function of time.
Fig. 16 The mirror-image effect.
One can easily see that when the electric field goes negative
(negative charge in the cloud base) the precipitation current becomes
positive and vice versa. As pointed out by Chalmers, a drop must take
several minutes to fall from the cloud base to ground. Since the
precipitation charge changes with the potential gradient below the
cloud, it must mean that the drops also obtain their final charge below
the cloud or very near ground. The electrochemical charging process can
ATMOSPHERIC ELECTROSTATICS
28
possibly explain the mirror-image effect if one assumes that the positive
to negative ion concentration ratio near ground is affected by the strong
electric field under the cloud. For example, a positive charge on the
earth's surface, caused by a strong negative cloud charge above, would
attract and remove part of the negative ion population near the surface.
The result would be a higher than normal positive to negative ion
concentration ratio at lower levels. When the positive to negative ion
ratio exceeds 1.2 (see Fig. 11) it will produce a positive electrochemical
potential on water drops falling through such a region as demonstrated
by the Gerdien apparatus experiments in section 2.1. On the other
hand, a positive cloud charge above would reverse the effect because
drops now fall through an environment containing a higher negative to
positive ion concentration ratio which will generate negative
electrochemical charges on their surfaces. Other explanations of the
mirror-image effect take the Wilson charging mechanism into
consideration. This charging mechanism is based on the idea that rain
drops become electrically polarized when immersed in an electric field
such as under an electrified cloud. A negative cloud charge above will
induce a positive charge on the top surface of a drop and the bottom
surface will acquire a negative charge induced by the positive charge on
the earth's surface. The total net charge on the drop, however, would
remain zero. As the drop falls through the ionized region below a cloud
it would preferentially sweep up positive ions by its negatively-charged
bottom. Calculations, however, show that the Wilson mechanism is
too feeble to account for the amounts of charge normally collected by
drops (the Wilson charging mechanism is discussed further in Chapter
3). In contrast to rain, precipitation currents carried to ground by snow
are usually always negative under potential gradients between ±800
V/m (Chalmers 1956). The total precipitation current around the earth
is estimated to be about +340 amperes.
THE ELECTRICAL STRUCTURE OF THE ATMOSPHERE 29
2.6 LIGHTNING CURRENTS
The charge brought to earth by lightning is estimated to average -340
amperes which would cancel the precipitation current. It must be
remembered that a mean current of -340 amperes represents the
excess of negative charge over positive charge reaching ground by
lightning and that the ratio of negative to positive ground strokes equals
about 10:1. The average current in a negative lightning stroke to ground
is about 25,000 amperes but the total charge averages only 25 coulomb.
Positive ground strokes usually carry as much as 10 times more charge
and current than do negative strokes although they are outnumbered by
10:1. The ratio of negative to positive ground strokes seems to vary with
global location.
It is believed that about 2,000 thunderstorms are active at one time
around the earth which amounts to a total number of 50,000
thunderstorms per day.
2.7.1 THE ELECTRIC BUDGET
Where does the energy of nearly 200 million watts come from that is
required to maintain the earth-atmosphere electric fairweather field?
Are thunderstorms generating the fairweather field by leaking off
positive charge from cloud tops to the conducting ionosphere and by
bringing negative charge to earth in the form of negative ground strokes
and point discharge currents? Or is the electric charge on the earth's
surface maintained by the electrochemical charging mechanism in close
collaboration with convection and eddy diffusion? These are some of the
basic questions that are still in need of answers. Both mechanisms are,
in the author's opinion, certainly capable of supplying enough charge
and energy to the earth-atmosphere system, but new ideas and more
sophisticated measuring techniques are needed in order to find the
right answers.
ATMOSPHERIC ELECTROSTATICS
30
2.7.2 THE GLOBAL THUNDERSTORM CIRCUIT
The concept that all thunderstorms around the world generate charge
to the earth-ionosphere system was first suggested by C.T.R. Wilson in
1920. The diagram in Fig. 17 shows the global thunderstorm system
Fig. 17 The global electric circuit by C.T.R. Wilson.
as interpreted by Wilson. Electric field lines extend from the top of a
cloud to the highly conducting upper layers of our atmosphere (50km
and higher). Charge is presumed to leak along the field lines from the
top of the cloud to the surrounding ionosphere. Note that field lines also
go from the top of the cloud to ground thus leaking positive charge to
ground. Negative charge is brought to ground mainly by lightning
strokes and point discharge currents. The number of field lines between
the cloud top and ionosphere compared to the number between cloud
top and ground is an unanswered but crucial question which will
determine the amount of charge supplied to the global fairweather
circuit. For example, if the number of field lines going from the top of
the cloud to earth would equal the number of field lines returning from
earth to the bottom of the cloud, no current can flow to the ionosphere.
THE ELECTRICAL STRUCTURE OF THE ATMOSPHERE 31
Another problem presents itself when one examines the charge
distribution of the fairweather field. Figs. 12 and 14 illustrate that
about 90% of the fairweather field and charge is confined within an
altitude of 2 km which is far below the conducting ionosphere. The
situation is usually explained as follows: consider two conducting
surfaces such as the ionosphere and the earth's surface carrying
opposite charges at a potential difference of several hundred kilovolts,
the earth's surface being negative and the ionosphere positive (see Fig
17). A current driven by thunderstorm generators is flowing in the
form of negative ions towards the ionosphere and positive ions towards
the earth's surface. Since conductivity and ion mobility increase with
altitude, it is believed that negative ions (which flow upwards) will
disappear faster on the positive electrode, the ionosphere, than
positive ions can disappear on the earth's surface. Positive ions which
Fig. 18 Variation in fairweather field and current compared to thunderstorm
activity.
face an increase in resistance are believed to slow down and congregate
in a space charge cloud near the earth's surface. This is believed to
produce an excess of positive ions near the earth's surface and could
ATMOSPHERIC ELECTROSTATICS
32
explain the observed positive space charge distribution of the
fairweather electric field. Plasma physics does not allow ions of one kind
to disappear faster on one of the electrodes because it would mean that
one of the electrodes or conductors in question would carry more current
than the other, which is impossible. Theory and experiments require
that an opposite and equal amount of space charge must build up near
the other electrode as well (see Papoular 1965). In the case of the
fairweather electric field, such a negative space charge near the
ionosphere or near tops of thunderstorm generators, have never been
found.
Data presented by Imyanitov and Chubarina (1967) provides little
support for the closed circuit idea since they show that annual
variations in the fairweather field are not in phase with typical
thunderstorm activity throughout the world for the same period (see
Fig. 18). Furthermore, Kasemir has pointed out that the curve showing
diurnal variations of the fairweather field in Fig. 15 is much too smooth
to fit the world-wide thunderstorm activity data, because recent satellite
data show that thunderstorms are mainly active over continental land
masses rather than over oceans (Turman, 1978, Turman and Edgar,
1982). The smooth curve in Fig. 15 might be more representative of the
world-wide atmospheric convection and follows the field variations of
the Austauch generator, a situation which would favour the
electrochemical charging theory.
2.7.3 THE ELECTROCHEMICAL MECHANISM
The electrochemical charging mechanism considers the earth as an
electrode immersed in a weak gaseous electrolyte, the naturally ionized
atmosphere. The earth's surface will adsorb negative ions and achieve
an electrode potential of about -0.25 volts which will appear at the earth
atmosphere interface in form of an electric double layer. This is
analogous to a battery cell where an electrode becomes charged relative
THE ELECTRICAL STRUCTURE OF THE ATMOSPHERE 33
to an electrolyte. The thickness of the electric double layer is very
small, about 1mm in the normally ionized atmosphere. The double
layer can be pictured as containing field lines which connect each
captured negative ion on the earth's surface with an excess positive ion
left behind in the atmosphere. As convection and eddy diffusion lift the
excess positive ions to higher elevations the field lines stretch thus
increasing the potential with altitude. The result is an electric field
build-up which will follow a pattern completely dictated by the mixing
and diffusion mechanisms in the atmosphere such as shown in Figs. 12
and 13. The field strength at the earth's surface will equal the
electrochemical potential divided by the double layer thickness
(0 25 250
. /
volts / mm m
= V ) which is in close agreement with
measurements. With a few exceptions (Griffiths and Vonnegut (1975),
Moore and Vonnegut (1977) and Willet (1980)) no serious criticism has
yet been directed against the electrochemical charging mechanism
perhaps because it is relatively new theory. The above investigators
believe that contact potentials rather than electrochemical potentials
are responsible for the results reported by the author and that such a
charging mechanism is too insignificant to play any major part in
atmospheric electricity.
ATMOSPHERIC ELECTROSTATICS
34