unos artiículos relacionados con el estudio del circuito eléctrico,
parece ya claro que la electricidad de las tormentas tienen como factores implicados a la ionosfera y el sol como modulador
...Thunderstorms and electrified clouds are the 'batteries' of the atmospheric electric circuit, which drive the current from the ground to the ionosphere, while lightning is a visual representation of the current. The flow of current around the world is modulated by cosmic rays, which control atmospheric conductivity. (Cosmic rays are in turn modulated by the solar wind). The circuit is completed when the current trickles back to Earth, in regions remote from thunderstorm activity, such as Antarctica.
International Polar Day - Above the Polar RegionsGlobal thunderstorms maintain the lowest reaches of the ionosphere at a potential of ~250 kV with respect to the ground. This results in a very weak atmospheric current (3 pico-amps per metre squared) toward the Earth in the fair-weather regions of the globe, and near the ground maintains a substantive vertical electric field of some 100 volts per meter. Cosmic ray ionisation, the magnitude of which can be controlled by solar activity via the solar wind, modulates the resistance of this global electric circuit in which thunderstorms are the generators. By controlling the ease with thunderstorms can dissipate current it is feasible that solar activity may modulate the intensity of thunderstorm development, thus modulating the distribution of energy within the meteorological system.
High, dry regions with no thunderstorms, such as the Antarctic plateau, are ideal for monitoring the global geoelectric circuit. Additional solar influences on the geoelectric field occur at high latitudes, via the same processes that generate the aurora. In conjunction with Russian and American colleagues, we presently measure the geoelectric field at the Russian station, Vostok, on the Antarctic plateau. We have shown that solar variability can influence the geoelectric field measured at ground level in polar regions, and are continuing to develop research instrumentation and methods of testing the viability of a solar variability influence on weather and climate through modulation of the geoelectric circuit.
Can solar variability influence climate?Thunderstorms and strongly electrified clouds are batteries contributing a globally uniform, time-varying electric potential of ~240 kV, directed downward, between the ionosphere and the ground. In fair-weather regions this potential drives an air-Earth current of ~3 pA m-2 (approximately 3 millionths on a millionth of an ampere flows through each square meter of the atmosphere from the ionosphere to the Earth, away from regions of meteorologically induced electrical activity). Near ground-level, a vertical electric field of ~100 V m-1 can be measured. The time-constant of this global atmospheric circuit is ~20 min. [References: Bering et al., 1998; Rycroft et al., 2000; Markson, 2007]
Measurements of the global atmospheric circuit are generally made away from the regions of significant local convective activity and where the seasonal-diurnal variations in atmospheric conductivity are minimised. Above the oceans, some mountain tops and ice-caps are preferred sites. Times when local meteorological electrical activity is negligible, known as 'fair weather', may still be limited. For example, fair weather conditions occur for ~10% of time at the Antarctic Coastal station of Davis [Burns et al., 1995] and ~55% of time at the Antarctic Plateau station of Vostok [Burns et al., 2006].
Atmospheric convective processes which generate thunderstorm activity occur principally over warmed land (see the annual summaries at http://thunder.msfc.nasa.gov/data/OTDsummaries) and maximise in the local afternoon hours. Combined with the global distribution of landmasses, this is believed to be the reason the average, fair-weather diurnal variation in the ground-level, vertical electric field at suitable sites has a diurnal maximum at ~20 UT a diurnal minimum at ~04 UT, and a diurnal range ~37% of the mean. The reference standard for the diurnal variation in the fair-weather field remains the average determined from the cruises of the Carnegie in the first half of the twentieth century [see Reiter, 1992]
Solar Linkages to Atmospheric Processes