- Article
- Open Access
- Published:
Surface fair-weather potential gradient measurements from a small tropical island station Suva, Fiji
Earth, Planets and Space volume 61, pages 747–753 (2009)
Abstract
Systematic analysis of the surface fair-weather potential gradient (PG) measured for 13 months (July 2005–July 2006) at 10 s resolution over a small tropical island station Suva (18.08°S, 178.45°E), Fiji is presented. Based on the solar radiation (>800 W m−2) and surface wind speed (<4.5 m s−1) conditions, 63 fair-weather days were selected. After sorting the data into a range of 0–1000 V m−1, the average PG was ∼139 V m−1. The measured fair-weather PG had a semi-diurnal structure, with a more pronounced peak at 0730 LT (1930 UT) and a reduced peak at 2200 LT (1000 UT). The time of occurrence of the morning peak and the noontime minima agreed well with the Carnegie curve. However, the variation about the global mean in the measured PG was 150% whereas for the Carnegie curve it was only 35%. The effects of the local meteorological parameters on the PG measurements were found to be small. On average, the PG during the dry season (May–October) was always greater than in the wet season (November–April). In contrast, analysis of regional (0–60°S and 100°E–160°W) lightning activity on fair-weather days showed a peak at ∼2000 LT and higher lightning activity during the wet season. These results indicate that the regional thunderstorm activity has no direct connection with the local fair-weather PG at the site.
References
Adlerman, E. J. and E. R. Williams, Seasonal Variation of the Global Electric Circuit, J. Geophys. Res., 101(D23), 29679–29688, 1996.
Blanchard, D. C., Positive space charge from the sea, J. Atmos. Sci., 23, 507–515, 1966.
Burns, G. B., A. V. Frank-Kamenstsky, O. A. Troshichev, E. A. Bering, and B. D. Reddell, Interannual consistency of bi-monthly difference in diurnal variations of the ground-level, vertical electric field, J. Geophys. Res., 110, 1–14, 2005.
Cobb, W. E. and H. Wells, The electrical conductivity of oceanic air and its correlation to global atmospheric pollution, J. Atmos. Sci., 27, 814–819, 1970.
Coffman, M. L., Charging grains of dust, J. Geophys. Res., 68, 1565–1566, 1963.
Harrison, R. G., Twentieth century atmospheric electrical measurements at the observatories of Kew, Eskdalemuir and Lerwick, Weather, 58, 11–19, 2003.
Harrison, R. G., The global atmospheric electrical circuit and climate, Surv. Geophys., 25, 441–484, 2004.
Harrison, R. G. and K. L. Aplin, Mid-nineteenth century smoke concentration near London, Atmos. Enviro., 36(25), 4037–4043, 2002.
Harrison, R. G. and K. L. Aplin, Nineteenth century air pollution variation in Paris inferred from Eiffel Tower potential gradient measurements, Proc. 12th International Conference on Atmospheric Electricity, Versailles, Paris 9th–13th June 2003, 789–792, 2005.
Hoppel, W. A., R. V. Anderson, and J. C. Willett, Atmospheric electricity in the planetary boundary layer, in The Earth’s Electrical Environment, 149–165, National Academic Press, Washington, D.C., 1986.
Israel, H., Atmospheric Electricity, vol. 2, Israel Program for Scientific Translations, Jerusalem, 1973.
Israelsson, S. and H. Tammet, Variation of fair-weather atmospheric electricity at Marsta Observatory, Sweden, 1993–1998, J. Atmos. Sol.-Terr. Phys., 63, 1693–1703, 2001.
Kumar, V., R. C. Deo, and V. Ramachandran, Total Rain Accumulation and Rain-Rate analysis for Small Tropical Pacific Islands: A Case Study of Suva, Fiji, Atmos. Sci. Lett., 7(3), 53–58, 2006.
Latha, R., Diurnal variation of surface electric field at a tropical station in different seasons: a study of plausible influences, Earth Planets Space, 55, 677–685, 2003.
Law, J., The ionisation of the atmosphere near the ground in fair weather, Quaterly J. Roy. Met. Soc., 89, 107–121, 1963.
Marcz, F. and R. G. Harrison, Further signatures of long-term changes in atmospheric electrical parameters observed in Europe, Ann. Geophys., 23, 1987–1995, 2005.
Marshall, C. T., W. D. Rust, M. Stolzenburg, P. W. Roeder, and R. P. Krebhiel, A study of enhanced fair-weather electric fields occurring soon after sunrise, J. Geophys. Res., 104(D20), 24455–24469, 1999.
Moore, C. B., B. Vonnegut, R. G. Semonin, J. W. Bullock, and W. Bradley, Fair-weather atmospheric electric potential gradient and space charge over central Illinois, summer 1960, J. Geophys. Res., 67, 1061–1071, 1962.
Panneerselvam, C., K. U. Nair, K. Jeeva, C. Selvaraj, S. Gurubaran, and R. Rajaram, A comparative study of atmospheric Maxwell current and electric field from a low latitude station, Tirunelveli, Earth Planets Space, 55, 679–703, 2003.
Ramachandran, V., S. Kumar, and A. Kishore, Remote sensing of cloud-to-ground lightning location using the TOGA of sferics, Atmos. Sci. Lett., 6, 128–132, 2005.
Reddell, B. D., J. R. Benbrook, E. A. Bering, E. N. Cleary, and A. A. Few, Seasonal variations of atmospheric electricity measured at Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, J. Geophys. Res., 109, A09308, 1–17, 2004.
Thomson, A., Preliminary report on the atmospheric potential gradient recorded at Apia Observatory, Western Samoa, May 1992 to April 1924, Terr. Magn., 29, 97–100, 1924.
Tinsley, B. A., G. B. Burns, and L. Zhou, The role of the global electric circuit in solar and internal forcing of clouds and climate, J. Adv. Space Res., doi:10.1016/j.asr.2007.01.071, 2007 (in press).
Volland, H., Atmospheric Electrodynamics, 11th edn, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, Germany, 4–28, 1984.
Whipple, F. J. W., On the association of the diurnal variation of electric potential on fine weather with the distribution of thunderstorms over the globe, in: Anderson R. V., 1967. Measurement of Worldwide Diurnal Atmospheric Electricity Variations, Mon. Weather Rev., 95(12), 899–904, 1929.
Williams, E. R. and S. J. Heckman, The local diurnal variation of cloud electrification and the global diurnal variation of negative charge on earth, J. Geophys. Res., 98(D3), 5221–5234, 1993.
Williams, E. R., V. C. Mushtak, and D. J. Boccippio, Another look at the dependence of lightning flash rate on the temperature of boundary layer air in the present climate, Proc.12th International Conference on Atmospheric Electricity, 9–13 June, Versailles, France, 2003.
Wilson, C. T. R., Investigation of lightning discharges and on the electric field of thunderstorms, Philos. Trans. Roy. Soc. L., A221, 73–115, 1920.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
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/.
About this article
Cite this article
Kumar, V.V., Ramachandran, V., Buadromo, V. et al. Surface fair-weather potential gradient measurements from a small tropical island station Suva, Fiji. Earth Planet Sp 61, 747–753 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1186/BF03353181
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/BF03353181
Key words
- Fair-weather potential gradient
- oceanic region
- DC global electrical circuit
- lightning