Book Title: Shu Vidyut Sachit Teukay Che
Author(s): Mahendramuni
Publisher: Anekant Bharati Prakashan
View full book text
________________
(4) Molecules of water are mostly confined to the lowest layer called
the troposphere. (5) There is a significant amount of Ozone (0) gas in the height
range 30 to 50 kilometers. (c) Satish K. Gupta, op. ct., Pages 137, 138
“The Atmosphere and its Electricty The earth's atmosphere extends upto about 400 km above the surface of the earth. The electrical properties of the atmosphere goes on changing, as one goes up from the surface of earth. On the basis of these electric properties, the earth's atmosphere has been divided into following four layers : 1. Troposphere, 2. Stratosphere, 3. Mesophere, 4. Ionosphere The electrical properties and the phenomena occurring in the atmosphere are mainly due to troposphere and stratosphere. The troposphere extends up to 12 km from the surface of earth, while the stratosphere extends from 12 km to about 50 km from the surface of the earth. The earth is good conductor of electricity and at low altitude, atmosphere is poor conductor of electricity. The small conductivity of the atmosphere is due to the ionisation produced by the high energy particles of the cosmic rays, which are constantly hitting the earth from the outer space. The conductivity of space is greatly influenced by the presence of dust particles and by the humidity conditions. However as we to up, the conductivity of the atmosphere goes on increasing. At the top of stratosphere i.e. at a distance of 60 km from the surface of the earth, the atmosphere is quite a good conductor of electricity. The electrical phenomena in atmosphere take place between the surface of earth (acting as one conducting layer) and the top of the stratosphere (acting as the other conducting layer), which are separated by a thick atmosphere of varying conductivity. The two layers form a spherical capacitor of large capacitance. Now, we state a few experimentally observed facts about electrical properties of atmosphere :
At ground level, there is a downward electric field of about 102 V m all over the earth. This goes on decreasing with height. At 10 km above the surface of earth, it becomes quite small, while at end, it is negligible. There is potential difference of the order of 4 x 10% V between the surface of earth and that of the stratosphere. Most of the potential difference occurs at low altitudes.
2.
138
Jain Educationa International
For Personal and Private Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org

Page Navigation
1 ... 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312