New determination of the air-earth current over the ocean and measurements of ionosphere potentials

Summary

The electrode effect could be detected in full magnitude on the Atlantic during the expedition of the research vessel ‘Meteor’. The average value of the electric field over the sea surface is about 125 V/m, in about 10 to 100 m over the surface only about 60 V/m. This phenomenon as well as the results of small ion records lead to a value of the air earth current density on the sea of only 0.9×10⁻¹² A/m², a quarter of the value accepted up to now. With these values the total current of the global air electric circuit will be about 665 A instead of 1500 to 1800 A. The ionosphere potentials over two places in a distance of 8000 km at 15 dates are nearly identical and in the average 280 kV.