Statistics and trends of global atmospheric electricity measurements

• Main Author: Cleary, Erika Noel
• Other Authors: Few, Arthur A., Jr.
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 1995
• Subjects: Atmospheric sciences; South Pole; South pole
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/1911/13937

Globally representative atmospheric electric field and current data have been obtained from two sites at Amudsen-Scott South Pole Station at ground level (3 m) with 1 Hz time resolution. The average diurnal variation has been calculated for individual months and seasons, and well known features of the Carnegie curve observed. Amplitude ratios for seasonal curves range between 30-43%, in agreement with other studies. The Northern hemisphere winter is found to be a minimum for global convective-electrical activity and summer a maximum, in contradiction to the original 1929 Carnegie results. Seasonal phase shifts observed in previous studies of the diurnal variation of deep convective activity (DCA) in the tropics also appear in the results of this study. Good correlations between low amplitude peaks suggest our data are highly accurate and could be useful in detecting changes in weather patterns as might occur with global warming.