Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY A-MATHEMATICAL PHYSICAL AND ENGINEERING SCIENCES
Volume 476, Issue 2238, Pages -Publisher
ROYAL SOC
DOI: 10.1098/rspa.2019.0758
Keywords
atmospheric electricity; Earth system; global circuit; clouds; cosmic rays
Categories
Funding
- Royal Society International Exchange project [IECR2170075]
- UK (Russian Foundation for Basic Research project) [17-5510014]
- NERC support through an Independent Research Fellowship [NE/L011514/1, NE/L011514/2]
- NERC Collaborative Gearing Scheme
- Russian Foundation for Basic Research [19-05-00975]
- NERC [NE/L011514/2, NE/L011514/1, NE/N013689/1] Funding Source: UKRI
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A fair-weather electric field has been observed near the Earth's surface for over two centuries. The field is sustained by charge generation in distant disturbed weather regions, through current flow in the global electric circuit. Conventionally, the fair-weather part of the global circuit has disregarded clouds, but extensive layer clouds, important to climate, are widespread globally. Such clouds are not electrically inert, becoming charged at their upper and lower horizontal boundaries from vertical current flow, in a new electrical regime-neither fair nor disturbed weather; hence it is described here as semi-fair weather. Calculations and measurements show the upper cloud boundary charge is usually positive, the cloud interior positive and the lower cloud boundary negative, with the upper charge density larger, but of the same magnitude (similar to nCm(-2)) as cloud base. Globally, the total positive charge stored by layer clouds is approximately 10(5)C, which, combined with the positive charge in the atmospheric column above the cloud up to the ionosphere, balances the total negative surface charge of the fair-weather regions. Extensive layer clouds are, therefore, an intrinsic aspect of the global circuit, and the resulting natural charging of their cloud droplets is a fundamental atmospheric feature.
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