Abstract

Impact of aerosols on conductivity of the stratosphere

Author(s): S.Chandramma, K.Nagaraja

Ionic conductivity is one of the important parameters for understanding the electrical state of the environment and is known to be sensitive to the presence of aerosols. Thus, aerosol loading on the stratosphere has a bearing on the conductivity.Apreliminary effort is made to study the behaviour of ionic conductivity of the stratosphere. For analyzing the effect of aerosols on conductivity, the aerosol number density alone is not sufficient and requires a parameter which is a function of ionic mobility and as well as aerosol size distribution. Therefore, the aerosol ion-small ion recombination coefficient determines the extent to which aerosols can alter the conductivity of the stratosphere. This necessitates the requirement of experimental measurements of aerosol ion-small ion recombination coefficient along with simultaneouslymeasured aerosol density and electrical conductivity in the region. Comparison of s-profiles with that of the ion-ion recombination coefficient i indicate that it may be necessary to incorporate multiple charged aerosols in the ion-aerosol model studies of conductivity of stratosphere under enhanced aerosol conditions such as volcanic eruption, a feature not seen in the usual model studies of the stratospheric conductivity.