Introduction to the special issue “Atmospheric electrical observatories”

[摘要] Atmospheric electricity is a long-established subject, with the discovery of the atmospheric electric field away from thunderstorms and the identification of lightning as electricity both dating from the mid-18th century (Aplin et al., 2008). Systematisation of atmospheric electricity measurements began with the establishment of many geophysical observatories as part of the “magnetic crusade” and the professionalisation of science in the 1830s (e.g. Macdonald, 2018). Although this special issue is focused on the contributions made by observatories, historic atmospheric electricity measurements can be valuable for contemporary science and technology. For example, they can contribute to climatological studies of convective storms (Valdivieso et al., 2019) as well as new insights into space weather (e.g. Aplin and Harrison, 2014) and air pollution (Harrison and Aplin, 2002). Beyond the observatory network, there are numerous other accounts of historical atmospheric electricity observations from across the world. Most are short-lived, some predate the establishment of observatories, and others were made by the amateur scientists of the day. These have been tabulated and are available online (https://glocaem.wordpress. com/historical-datasets/, last access: 1 July 2020); further items to add are welcomed.

[学科分类] 工业工程学