Evaluating stratiform cloud base charge remotely

Harrison, R. G. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0693-347X, Nicoll, K. A. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5580-6325 and Aplin, K. L. (2017) Evaluating stratiform cloud base charge remotely. Geophysical Research Letters, 44 (12). pp. 6407-6412. ISSN 0094-8276 doi: 10.1002/2017GL073128

Abstract/Summary

Stratiform clouds acquire charge at their upper and lower horizontal boundaries due to vertical current flow in the global electric circuit. Cloud charge is expected to influence microphysical processes, but understanding is restricted by the infrequent in-situ measurements available. For stratiform cloud bases below 1 km in altitude, the cloud base charge modifies the surface electric field beneath, allowing a new method of remote determination. Combining continuous cloud height data during 2015-2016 from a laser ceilometer with electric field mill data, cloud base charge is derived using a horizontal charged disk model. The median daily cloud base charge density found was -0.86 nCm-2 from 43 days’ data. This is consistent with a uniformly charged region ~ 40 m thick at the cloud base, now confirming that negative cloud base charge is a common feature of terrestrial layer clouds. This technique can also be applied to planetary atmospheres and volcanic plumes.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/70673
Identification Number/DOI	10.1002/2017GL073128
Refereed	No
Divisions	Science > School of Mathematical, Physical and Computational Sciences > Department of Meteorology
Publisher	American Geophysical Union
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