Abstract
Ground-based measurements of the vertical electric field (Ez or potential gradient) during fair weather days in the Negev desert, southern Israel are presented for the period June 2013-July 2015. We show results of the diurnal variation of Ez on seasonal and annual time scales, and make comparisons with the well-known Carnegie curve. We show a positive correlation between the diurnal Ez values and the number of global thunderstorm clusters on the same days. However, the diurnal Ez curves observed in the Negev desert show a local morning peak (8-10 UT) that is missing from the Carnegie Curve, but observed in other land-based Ez data from around the world. The morning peak is assumed to be a local effect and shown to correlate with a peak in the local aerosol loading in the lower atmosphere due to the increase in turbulence and mixing caused by solar heating in the morning hours.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 119-125 |
Number of pages | 7 |
Journal | Atmospheric Research |
Volume | 172-173 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 15 May 2016 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This research is supported by the Israel Science Foundation (grant no. 423/13 ). We thank the AeroNet Sde Boker team for letting us use their data.
Keywords
- Carnegie curve
- Fair weather electricity
- Global electric circuit