Increased occurrence of lightning flashes in Sweden during 1986

Israelsson, S.; Schütte, T.; Pisler, E.; Lundquist, S.

doi:10.1029/jd092id09p10996

Cited by 23 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…The average lightning frequency of the contaminated sites was up to five times higher than that of low-radioactivity sites. Israelsson et al (1987) suggested that the observations of lightning activity enhancement may be attributed to ionization caused by radioactivity.…”

Section: Charge Distribution Of Radioactive Particles In Open Airmentioning

confidence: 94%

“…High ion concentrations increased the electrical conductivity of the local atmosphere to much higher than normal levels. This could result in short-circuiting of the electric field (Israelsson and Knudsen, 1986;Israelsson et al, 1987), thereby decreasing potential gradient and space charge in the local atmosphere. The duration time of these effects may depend on radioactivity in air and on ground surfaces because radioactive particles can be transported to other places by various processes, such as runoff (Israelsson and Knudsen, 1986) and wind-driven resuspension (Yamauchi et al, 2012).…”

Section: Charge Distribution Of Radioactive Particles In Open Airmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…After the Chernobyl accident, abnormal lightning activity was observed at contaminated radioactive sites in Sweden (Israelsson et al, 1987). Lightning flashes of the contaminated sites significantly increased for a few months after the accident.…”

Section: Charge Distribution Of Radioactive Particles In Open Airmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Surface charge accumulation of particles containing radionuclides in open air

Kim

Yiacoumi

Tsouris

2015

Journal of Environmental Radioactivity

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Radioactivity can induce charge accumulation on radioactive particles. However, electrostatic interactions caused by radioactivity are typically neglected in transport modeling of radioactive plumes because it is assumed that ionizing radiation leads to charge neutralization. The assumption that electrostatic interactions caused by radioactivity are negligible is evaluated here by examining charge accumulation and neutralization on particles containing radionuclides in open air. A charge-balance model is employed to predict charge accumulation on radioactive particles. It is shown that particles containing short-lived radionuclides can be charged with multiple elementary charges through radioactive decay. The presence of radioactive particles can significantly modify the particle charge distribution in open air and yield an asymmetric bimodal charge distribution, suggesting that strong electrostatic particle interactions may occur during short- and long-range transport of radioactive particles. Possible effects of transported radioactive particles on electrical properties of the local atmosphere are reported. The study offers insight into transport characteristics of airborne radionuclides. Results are useful in atmospheric transport modeling of radioactive plumes.

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Section: Charge Distribution Of Radioactive Particles In Open Airmentioning

confidence: 94%

Section: Charge Distribution Of Radioactive Particles In Open Airmentioning

confidence: 98%

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Surface charge accumulation of particles containing radionuclides in open air

Kim

Yiacoumi

Tsouris

2015

Journal of Environmental Radioactivity

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“…The fair weather electric field varies typically between 100-300 V/m at the ground surface and shows diurnal, seasonal, and other time variations caused by many factors. The fair weather conductivity of the atmosphere near the Earth's surface is of the order of 10 −14 mho/m and shows considerable variations with particulate pollution (Cobb and Wells, 1970;Kamra and Deshpande, 1995;Kamra et al 2001), relative humidity (Kamra et al, 1997), and radioactivity of the air and ground surface (Israelsson and Knudsen, 1986;Israelsson et al, 1987). The electric conductivity increases nearly exponentially with altitude up to 60 km with the scale length of 7 km (Figure 2).…”

Section: Global Electric Circuitmentioning

confidence: 96%

The electrical environment of the Earth’s atmosphere: A review

Singh

Kamra

2004

Space Sci Rev

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The study of the electrical environment of the Earth's atmosphere has rapidly advanced during the past century. Great strides have been made towards the understanding of lightning and thunderstorms and in relating them to the global electric circuit. The electromagnetic fields and currents connect different parts of the Earth's environment, and any type of perturbation in one region affects another region. Starting from the traditional views in which the electrodynamics of one region has been studied in isolation from the neighboring regions, the modern theory of the global electrical circuit has been discussed briefly. Interconnection and electrodynamic coupling of various regions of the Earth's environment can be easily studied by using the global electric circuit model. Deficiencies in the model and the possibility of improvement in it have been suggested. Application of the global electric circuit model to the understanding of the Earth's changes of climate has been indicated.

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“…The next obvious question is whether floating radionuclides (or increased conductivity σ) causes any detectable effects on negative PGs, i.e., on the point-charge electric field under the electrified clouds. Israelsson et al (1987) suggested that the electrical characteristics of raindrops or cloud nuclei might be affected. However, the effect of increased σ on the cloud-origin negative PG has never been considered.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of enhanced ionizing radiation on the cloud electricity after the Fukushima nuclear accident

Yamauchi

Takeda

Nagamachi

2018

Earth Planets Space

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The vertical downward component of the DC atmospheric electric field, or potential gradient (PG), at Kakioka 150 km southwest of the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant (FNPP1) was analyzed before and after the FNPP1 accident to examine possible influence of floating radioactive particles on the PG under the highly electrified clouds. Using 1-min PG data from March 13 to April 30 (late April 2011 corresponding to the time when floating radioactive materials decreased significantly) from 2006 to 2015, time profiles to/from the PG peaks (<− 100 or >+ 100 V/m) for 2011 are compared with other years. The PG developed toward and decays from its negative peaks faster in the first 50 days after the FNPP1 accident than for the same period in other years, making the 10-min averaged PG values for the same negative PG peak higher (smaller in terms of absolute value) during the first 50 days after the FNPP1 accident than those in other years in the study period, while the distribution of peak PG values is similar between 2011 and the other years. The observed shortening of the timescale is symmetric between the rise and decay and is the most clear when the negative PG peak is about − 200 to − 400 V/m. For positive peaks, the change of the baseline resulting from the radioactive contamination on the ground in 2011 caused superficial difference on such time profiles. Otherwise, there are no significant difference between 2011 and the other years. Possible explanations based on increased ionizing radiation from floating radioactive particles, which are found to be concentrated at low altitudes (< 500 m according to radiosonde in-situ observations of gamma rays) where negative cloud charges normally exceed positive charges, are discussed. The scenarios discussed include enhanced electrostatic shielding and electric conductivity-led decay rate of cloud charges. The result opens up a new possibility of using PG as an independent monitor of radioactivity at some altitudes in case of nuclear accidents.

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Increased occurrence of lightning flashes in Sweden during 1986

Cited by 23 publications

References 8 publications

Surface charge accumulation of particles containing radionuclides in open air

Surface charge accumulation of particles containing radionuclides in open air

The electrical environment of the Earth’s atmosphere: A review

Effect of enhanced ionizing radiation on the cloud electricity after the Fukushima nuclear accident

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