Measurement of the atmospheric electric field inside the nonthunderstorm clouds on 2012 BEXUS campaign

Abstract

We measure an atmospheric electric field inside the nonthunderstorm clouds, because the studies of the electric charge structures inside the nonthunderstorm clouds have been few. For this purpose, a balloon with a gondola equipped with two field mills was used in balloon experiments for university students (BEXUS) organized by Europe Space Agency (ESA). From the experiment, two peaks of positive atmospheric electric filed were observed, so that simple charged spherical model is constructed. The estimated value of charges inside the cloud follows the results of Imyanitov and Chubarina (1965). In future, much more experiments should be required for the study of nonthunderstorm electricity.