Skip to main content
Earth, Planets and Space
Download PDF

Volume 58 Supplement 9

Special Issue: International Sessions of Japan Earth and Planetary Science Joint Meeting 2005

The contribution of sprites to the global atmospheric electric circuit

Earth, Planets and Space volume 58, pages 1193–1196 (2006)Cite this article

Abstract

The global static electric field in the global atmospheric electric circuit resulting from mesospheric sprite discharges is inferred from a coupled model for the global static and dynamic electric fields derived from Maxwell’s equations. It is found that the global atmospheric electric field from individual sprites is ≲ 44 mV/m, which can be measured with conventional ULF/ELF radio wave antennas at frequencies ≲ 4 Hz.

References

  • Bering, E. A., A. A. Few, and J. R. Benbrook, The global electric circuit, Physics Today, 51(10), 24–30, 1998.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bliokh, H., A. P. Nickolaenko, and Yu. F. Filippov, Schumann resonances in the Earth-ionosphere cavity, P. Peregnimus Ltd., Stevenage, 1980.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boeck, W. L., O. H. Vaughan, R. J. Blakeslee, B. Vonnegut, M. Brook, and J. McKune, Observations of lightning in the stratosphere, Journal of Geophysical Research, 100(D1), 1465–1475, 1995.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carslaw, K. S., R. G. Harrison, and J. Kirkby, Cosmic rays, clouds and climate, Science, 298, 1732–1737, 2002.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cummer, S. A. and Füllekrug, M., Unusually intense continuing current in lightning produces delayed mesospheric breakdown, Geophysical Research Letters, 28(3), 495–498, 2001.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cummer, S. A., U. S. Inan, T. F. Bell, and C. P. Barrington-Leigh, ELF radiation produced by electrical currents in sprites, Geophysical Research Letters, 25(8), 1281–1284, 1998.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Franz, R. C., R. J. Nemzek, and J. R. Winckler, Television image of a large upward electrical discharge above a thunderstorm system, Science, 249, 48–51, 1990.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Füllekrug, M., Dispersion relation for spherical electromagnetic resonances in the atmosphere, Physics Letters A, 275, 80–89, 2000.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Füllekrug, M., The contribution of intense lightning discharges to the global atmospheric electric circuit during April 1998, Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics, 66(13–14), 1115–1119, 2004.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Füllekrug, M., Detection of thirteen resonances of radio waves from particularly intense lightning discharges, Geophysical Research Letters, 32(doi:10.1029/2005GL023028), 1–4, 2005.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Füllekrug, M. and S. Constable, Global triangulation of intense lightning discharges, Geophysical Research Letters, 27(3), 333–336, 2000.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Füllekrug, M., A. C. Fraser-Smith, E. A. Bering, and A. A. Few, On the hourly contribution of global lightning to the atmospheric field in the Antarctic during December 1992, Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics, 61, 745–750, 1999.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Füllekrug, M., D. R. Moudry, G. Dawes, and D. D. Sentman, Mesospheric sprite current triangulation, Journal of Geophysical Research, 106(17), 20189–20194, 2001.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Füllekrug, M., A. C. Fraser-Smith, and K. Schlegel, Global ionospheric D-layer height monitoring, Europhysics Letters, 59(4), 626–632, 2002.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Greifinger, C. and P. Greifinger, Approximate method for determining ELF eigenvalues in the Earth-ionosphere waveguide, Radio Science, 13, 831–837, 1978.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hays, P. B. and R. G. Roble, A quasi-static model of global atmospheric electricity. 1. The lower atmosphere, Journal of Geophysical Research, 84, 3291–3305, 1979.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hoffmann, K., Bericht über die in Ebeltofthafen auf Spitzbergen (11°36′15″, 79°9′14″) in den Jahren 1913/14 durchgeführten luftelektrischen Messungen, Beitr. Phys. Atmosph., 11, 1–11, 1923.

    Google Scholar 

  • Holzer, R. E. and D. E. Deal, Low audio frequency electromagnetic signals of natural origin, Nature, 177, 536–537, 1956.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kautzleben, H., Kugelfunktionen, Teubner, Leipzig, 1965.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lyons, W. A., Sprite observations above the U.S. High Plains in relation to their parent thunderstorm systems, Journal of Geophysical Research, 101(23), 29641–29652, 1996.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pasko, V. P., U. S. Inan, T. F. Bell, and S. C. Reising, Mechanism of ELF radiation from sprites, Geophysical Research Letters, 25(18), 3493–3496, 1998.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pasko, V. P., M. A. Stanley, J. D. Mathews, U. S. Inan, and T. G. Wood, Electrical discharge from a thundercloud top to the lower ionosphere, Nature, 416, 152–154, 2002.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Roble, R. G. and P. B. Hays, A quasi-static model of global atmospheric electricity. 2. Electrical coupling between the upper and lower atmosphere, Journal of Geophysical Research, 84, 7247–7256, 1979.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rycroft, M. J., S. Israelsson, and C. Price, The global atmospheric electric circuit, solar activity and climate change, Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics, 62, 1563–1576, 2000.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sato, M. and H. Fukunishi, Global sprite occurrence locations and rates derived from triangulation of transient Schumann resonance events, Geophysical Research Letters, 30(16), 1859–1862, 2003.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sentman, D. D., Approximate Schumann resonance parameters for a two scale-height ionosphere, Journal of Atmospheric and Terrestrial Physics, 52(1), 35–46, 1990.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sentman, D. D., Schumann resonance spectra in a two-scale-height Earth-ionosphere cavity, Journal of Geophysical Research, 101(D5), 9479–9487, 1996.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sentman, D. D., E. M. Wescott, D. L. Osborne, D. L. Hampton, and M. J. Heavner, Preliminary results from the Sprites94 aircraft campaign: 1. Red sprites, Geophysical Research Letters, 22(10), 1205–1208, 1995.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Su, H. T., R. R. Su, A. B. Chen, Y. C. Wang, W. S. Hsiao, W. C. Lai, L. C. Lee, M. Sato, and H. Fukunishi, Gigantic jets between a thundercloud and the ionosphere, Nature, 423, 974–976, 2003.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Torreson, O. W., W. C. Parkinson, O. H. Gish, and G. R. Wait, Ocean atmospheric-electric results, Page 103 of: Oceanography III: Scientific results of Cruise VII during 1928–1929 under Command of Captain J. P. Ault, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington, D. C, 1946.

    Google Scholar 

  • Uman, M. A., The Earth and its atmosphere as a leaky spherical capacitor, American Journal of Physics, 42, 1033–1035, 1974.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wait, J. R., Electromagnetic Waves in Stratified Media, Pergamon Press, New York, 1962.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Space, Atmospheric and Oceanic Science, University of Bath, Bath, BA2, 7AY, UK

    Martin Füllekrug

  2. CAESAR Consultancy, 35 Millington Road, Cambridge, CB3 9HW, UK

    Michael J. Rycroft

Authors
  1. Martin Füllekrug
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Michael J. Rycroft
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Open Access  This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made.

The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.

To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Füllekrug, M., Rycroft, M.J. The contribution of sprites to the global atmospheric electric circuit. Earth Planet Sp 58, 1193–1196 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1186/BF03352009

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/BF03352009

Key words