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Stratospheric Electricity and the Global Circuit

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Book cover Electrical Processes in Atmospheres

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Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to relate our present knowledge of stratospheric electrification to concepts of the global circuit. The crudest feature of this circuit – a sharply bounded perfectly conducting upper layer – only emerged in 1929. The earlier ideas of Wilson and Appleton were far more sophisticated and have much in common with modern concepts. For example, a penetration of currents into the ionosphere to be there influenced by geomagnetic fields was envisaged.

The precise profile of electrical conductivity is shown to be critical to the global circuit. A maximum in conductivity due to a very small concentration of free electrons may exist at 50 km. This would tend to channel currents laterally rather in the manner conceived in the crude model of the global circuit.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Stanford Research Inst., 333 Ravenswood Avenue, Menlo Park, California, 94025, USA

    E. T. Pierce

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  1. E. T. Pierce
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Washington D.C., USA

    Hans Dolezalek  & Helmut E. Landsberg  & 

  2. Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany

    Reinhold Reiter

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© 1976 Dr. Dietrich Steinkopff Verlag GmbH & Co. KG., Darmstadt

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Pierce, E.T. (1976). Stratospheric Electricity and the Global Circuit. In: Dolezalek, H., Reiter, R., Landsberg, H.E. (eds) Electrical Processes in Atmospheres. Steinkopff. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-85294-7_90

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-85294-7_90

  • Publisher Name: Steinkopff

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-85296-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-85294-7

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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