Abstract
ONE of the problems of atmospheric electricity is to account for the relation between the concentration of small ions near the ground and the number of Aitken condensation nuclei present. Small ions are lost in two ways, by recombination among themselves and by attachment to the Aitken nuclei. When nuclei are plentiful, the first process is relatively unimportant. If we assume a constant rate of production of q ion pairs/cm.3/sec., any straightforward type of theory predicts a relation of the type q = nZ × const., where n is the concentration of small ions of one sign and Z is the concentration of nuclei. So far is this from being true that formulæ of the type q = ξnZ1/2 1 and nZ1/5 = const.2 have been proposed to fit the experimental results.
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References
Nolan, P. J., Proc. Roy. Irish Acad., 38, 49 (1929).
Wright, H. L., Quart. J. Roy. Met. Soc., 61, 93 (1935).
Hess, V. F., “The Electrical Conductivity of the Atmosphere’ (Constable, 1928).
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NOLAN, J., BURKE, T. Equilibrium of Ionization in the Lower Atmosphere. Nature 164, 454 (1949). https://doi.org/10.1038/164454b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/164454b0
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