Formation of Charge Layers in the Planetary Atmospheres

Abstract

This section focuses on the physical phenomena, leading to large-scale space-charge and electric field generation (electric dynamo) in the planetary atmospheres, and ways of their theoretical description. The main attention is paid to charge-layer formation in atmospheres. Under terrestrial conditions, a problem of charge-layer formation in the atmosphere is important from the viewpoint of both thunderstorm and fair weather electricity. It is important also for the problems of intense layer generation under perturbed ionization conditions, charge layer formation over deserts, high field generation in the mesosphere etc. On the other hand, charge-layer treatment allows verifying electrification theories being applied to more or less simple 1D conditions such as the electrode effect, cloud screening layers, long-term charge layers in mesoscale convective systems. The paper reviews the results of recent research in this field. General conditions of the electro-hydro-dynamic description and their applications to the planetary atmospheres are discussed in terms of the Debye length, mean free path length of charged particles, Langmuir frequency and electrical conductivity. In terms of electrostatic interaction energy, it is found that three phases for charge carriers co-exist in strongly electrified clouds in the Earth’s atmosphere. Crucial role of turbulent motion of conducting media for electric dynamo realization is revealed. The results of recent research in the modeling of the electrode effect, fog electrodynamics, screening layers in clouds and aerosol/dust structures, long-term charge layers in mesoscale convective systems are presented. Nonlinear solutions, demonstrating the formation of charge layers in planetary atmospheres, are examined.