AbstractVertical electric current density was obtained from direct electric field and conductivity measurements on two stratospheric balloon payloads during the 2nd polar patrol balloon (PPB) campaign from Syowa Station in Antarctica during January 2003. Payloads of these two flights were identical and were launched 8-h apart resulting in separation distances of a few hundred km during the time of overlapping data. The float altitude of each was a little over 30 km. The global circuit return current derived from these measurements is compared to the global lightning activity determined by the world wide lightning location (WWLLN) network. The total number of lightning events detected anywhere in the world are simply summed to form an hourly lightning flash rate for the time of the PPB data. The WWLLN and return current density data are shown to have a strong correlation, often with a strong universal time daily variation, similar to that expected for the global circuit.


    Access

    Check access

    Check availability in my library

    Order at Subito €


    Export, share and cite



    Title :

    Balloon observations of temporal variation in the global circuit compared to global lightning activity



    Published in:

    Advances in Space Research ; 36 , 11 ; 2223-2228


    Publication date :

    2005-07-08


    Size :

    6 pages




    Type of media :

    Article (Journal)


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    English





    History of NASA Global Lightning Observations

    Timothy Lang / Richard Blakeslee / Dennis Buechler et al. | NTRS


    Global Stratospheric Balloon Constellations

    Nock, K. T. / Heun, M. K. / Aaron, K. M. et al. | British Library Conference Proceedings | 2002



    Global balloon flight obstacles and opportunities

    Jones, W.Vernon | Online Contents | 2004