Electrode Effect on the Daily Variation in the Atmospheric Electric Field in the Surface Air Layer

Abstract

To solve general and special problems of ground-based monitoring of the atmospheric electric field, it is necessary to identify global factors against the local variability of the monitoring data. The global unitary variation in the ionospheric potential observed in the daily variation in the electric field is distorted under the electrode effect near the Earth’s surface. The structure of the resulting electrode layer strongly depends on the degree of turbulent mixing, the specific conductivity of air, and the altitude of electric field measurement. Based on the equation for the total electric current, which follows from the theory of the electrode effect of the surface air layer, we simulated daily variation in the electric field at different altitudes under different meteorological conditions. The simulation reveals the dependence of the position and magnitude of the global extreme points of the electric field on the turbulent mixing coefficient, air conductivity, and electrode layer height. Our results can be useful for solving applied problems in geophysics, in particular, atmospheric electric field monitoring.