A high-altitude balloon experiment to probe stratospheric electric fields from low latitudes

Abstract

The Earth’s electrical environment hosts a giant electrical circuit, often referred to as the global electric circuit (GEC), linking the various sources of electrical generators located in the lower atmosphere, the ionosphere and the magnetosphere. The middle atmosphere (stratosphere and mesosphere) has been traditionally believed to be passively transmitting electric fields generated elsewhere. Some observations have reported anomalously large electric fields at these altitudes, and the scientific community has had to revisit the earlier hypothesis time and again. At stratospheric altitudes and especially at low latitudes, horizontal electric fields are believed to be of ionospheric origin. Though measurements of these fields from a balloon platform are challenging because of their small magnitudes (around a few mVm􀀀1), a suitably designed long-duration balloon experiment capable of detecting such small fields can provide useful information on detection of horizontal electric fields of 5mVm􀀀1 at the stratospheric altitudes of 35 km.