The contribution of sprites to the global atmospheric electric circuit

Abstract

The global static electric field in the global atmospheric electric circuit resulting from mesospheric sprite discharges is inferred from a coupled model for the global static and dynamic electric fields derived from Maxwell's equations. It is found that the global atmospheric electric field from individual sprites is ≤ 44 mV/m, which can be measured with conventional ULF/ELF radio wave antennas at frequencies ≤ 4 Hz.