Open AccessA new empirical relation to estimate atmospheric electrical columnar resistance, effect of changing aerosol concentration and cosmic ray ionization on it: A quantitative study
Author(s) -
Kulkarni M. N.
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
journal of geophysical research: atmospheres
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.67
H-Index - 298
eISSN - 2156-2202
pISSN - 0148-0227
DOI - 10.1029/2008jd010009
Subject(s) - cosmic ray , aerosol , eddy diffusion , atmospheric sciences , thermal diffusivity , materials science , environmental science , turbulence , physics , meteorology , astrophysics , thermodynamics
A new empirical relation is found among atmospheric electrical columnar resistance, aerosol concentration, and eddy diffusion coefficient. The methodology is reported for the first time. This empirical relation can be used regularly for estimating columnar resistance. As solar modulation of cosmic rays and consequent changes in columnar resistance of global atmospheric electric circuit convey solar influence on lower atmospheric meteorological phenomena, a quantitative comparison of percent change in columnar resistance due to change in cosmic ray ionization and that due to change in aerosol concentration is made, which shows that 20% change in cosmic ray ionization causes more (about two times) change in columnar resistance over ocean but less (about 1/3) change over land as compared to that caused by 20% change in aerosol concentration. This confirms that over ocean, ionization due to cosmic rays and over land, atmospheric aerosol concentration mainly determine columnar resistance. This land‐ocean contrast gets reduced with atmospheric turbulence. It is found that, for small heights of the boundary layer (low eddy diffusivity), columnar resistance changes more with respect to change in aerosol concentration, and change in eddy diffusivity has negligible effect on it, but for large values of heights (large eddy diffusivity), there is substantial increase in columnar resistance. Furthermore, exceeding a certain critical value of conductivity, columnar resistance becomes independent of conductivity. The estimated values of columnar resistance using this method are very well consistent with the previous studies. Also, calculated percent change in global atmospheric electrical parameters agrees well with the previous results.