Atmospheric Electricity
E. A. Mareev
1,2
, V. N. Stasenko
3
, A. A. Bulatov
1
,
S. O. Dementyeva
1
, A. A. Evtushenko
1
, N. V. Ilin
1
,
F. A. Kuterin
1,2
, N. N. Slyunyaev
1
, M. V. Shatalina
1
1
Institute
of Applied Physics of RAS
2
Nizhny Novgorod State University
3
State research center “Planeta”
Introduction
This publication provides an overview of the results of Russian studies in
the field of atmospheric electricity in 2011–2014. Atmospheric electricity re‑
mains one of the fundamental problems in the physics
of the atmosphere and
has attracted attention for many years. Due to the wide application of new
techniques and modern computational methods, in the past few years there was
a significant development in various fields of investigation: fair weather elec‑
tricity, thunderstorm electricity, formation of the
electrical structure of clouds,
lightning detection, the correlation of thunderstorm activity with other danger‑
ous weather events. The analysis of the experimental data obtained in Russian
centres of atmospheric electricity research provides a significant contribution to
improving theoretical and numerical models of various electrical processes in
the atmosphere. A number of important research problems were developed in
physics of lightning, discharges in
the middle atmosphere, high‑energy process‑
es, including X-ray and gamma-ray flashes during thunderstorms. New theoret‑
ical approaches were developed to modelling the global electric circuit, light‑
ning activity forecast, the impact of thunderstorm activity on the chemical
composition of the atmosphere. In particular, great attention has been given to
the construction of systems for lightning flashes ranging and modern nowcast‑
ing systems. The main results for each field of study are given in detail in the
relevant section of this article.
1. Electricity in the fair weather conditions
In recent years fair weather electricity investigations have been receiving
increasing attention in Russia. The processes occurring in the convective atmos‑
pheric boundary layer (ABL) are one of the main foci of studies due to the needs
of fundamental research of cloud formation and electrical effects associated with
industrial and natural aerosols. Numerical models were developed for estimating
the electro-aerodynamic parameters of the convective ABL, in particular, the
19
Atmospheric
Electricity
spatio-temporal distribution of the ion concentration,
electric field, current den‑
sity, conductivity and space charge density in a variety of physical conditions
[1–3]. The proposed models are based on field observation databases and labo‑
ratory experiments. For horizontally homogeneous approximation with high
spatial and temporal resolution the vertical profiles of the atmospheric electric
field, space charge density, conductivity and atmospheric electric current densi‑
ty were calculated.
The space charge in the ABL can be estimated numerically on the basis of the
results of observations [4]. Using the long-term observatory observations and
seasonal field observations at the Borok Geophysical Observatory (58°04’N and
38°14’E), the dynamics of the electric field in the mid-latitude surface atmos‑
phere was analysed in a wide range of time scales. It was found that the diurnal
aeroelectric field variation in the middle latitudes closely matches the unitary
variation in the winter season. Cross-correlations of the intensity variations of
the atmospheric electric field density, vertical electric current density, space
charge density and electric conductivity were investigated. The studies of the
spectra of the short-period electric field pulsations were continued [5–7]. The
formation of the temperature inversion layer was accompanied by a positive
trend in the aeroelectric field intensity and by generation of the short-period
aeroelectric pulsations. The increase rate of the electric field at the beginning of
convection with inversion registered by SODAR amounted to 100 V/(m×h) [8].
Measurements of the atmospheric electric potential gradient were performed
near the Earth’s surface at two locations in the North Caucasus (in lowland and
highland zone). Possible reasons for local electric field variations in the aero‑
sol-free surface layer were analysed on the basis of the real experimental data
obtained at Cheget mountain peak. These studies have shown the occurrence of
an additional electric field maximum during the period 06–09 UT due to the di‑
urnal variation of the turbulent diffusion coefficient [9, 10].
In recent decades the ideas of seismic events prediction have been further
developed on the basis of studying the emanation of radon from the rock mass
in the regions of their elastic deformation before an earthquake. According to the
research results, radon-222 is one of the most important factors influencing the
electricity of the surface layer. Polar conductivities of the atmosphere show par‑
ticularly close relationship with the concentration of radon. The atmospheric
conductivity directly depends on the ion concentration, and by inference on the
ion formation factors. Comparative measurements of radon-222 and specific po‑
lar air conductivities in the atmospheric surface layer were carried out over a
number of years at various locations in the North Caucasus [11].. It was shown
that the variations in the concentrations of light atmospheric ions and the space
charge density are related with the variations in the radon-222 emanations. Spec‑
tral analysis of the space charge density variations was performed [12].