What is it about?
The electrical potential gradient (PG) near the Earth's surface is a common measure of the Earth's electrical conditions. At inhabitated sites across the world PG is often affected locally by aerosol particles which capture ions, reduce electrical conductivity and increase the value of PG. Our work shows that even at reduced concentration of some aerosol particles the diurnal and seasonal variations of the ground-level electrical conditions do not significantly alter their specific character.
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Why is it important?
The diurnal and seasonal variations of local PG are expected to reflect the variations of global effects driving the Earth's electrical conditions. At some sites this may not be valid because of the polutions effect. Our results imply that at some stations other local processes such as convection affect the variations of the electrical state more. So in order to measure the global influence they must be taken into account or the effect of pollution must be considered differently, or both.
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This page is a summary of: Diurnal, seasonal, and annual variations of the fair-weather atmospheric potential gradient and effects of reduced number concentration of condensation nuclei on potential gradient and air conductivity from long-term atmospheric electricity measurement..., Annales Geophysicae, July 2025, Copernicus GmbH,
DOI: 10.5194/angeo-43-391-2025.
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