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Vertical Electric Field data from Concordia Station - 2009 - 2012

Entry ID: ASAC_974_Concordia

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Summary

Abstract: Vertical Electric field measurements captured at Concordia Station. The files are stored in XML format, and contain detailed headings describing the data layout and format. The data are collected by a rotating electric field mill mounted on an all metal mast. The EFM is ~3m off the ground.

The vertical electric field measurements collected at the French (IPEV) and Italian (PNRA) station at ... Concordia are approved under the project: Electricite Atmospherique DC 33 N.

Data collection was commenced in January 2009 and concluded in January 2012.

Unlike the Vostok equipment (which is similar), the Concordia electric field mill was not calibrated after installation. Experience at Vostok indicates this equipment is relatively stable (see the Vostok data and the post-2006 calibrations if you need to quantify the term 'relatively stable'. As a rough estimate, dividing the 'raw' value by 10,000 yields an value approximately equal to the 'volts per metre', positive downward, relative to the calibration box (which is what both the Vostok and Concordia electric field mills are calibrated against). The instrument compression is not noted but is significantly greater for the earlier era instrument (operating at Vostok between 1998 and 2004), principally but not exclusively due to the different heights of the mill. As a better estimate of the values relative to the 'calibration box' use: Ez (relative to calibration box) = Raw Value * 1.019/10000 -2.2 [in volts per metre relative to the calibration box].

Gary Burns is working on a 'fair weather' selection of the Concordia data, and a comparison with coincident vertical electric field measurements at Vostok.

Public Summary of the project:
We are investigating a poorly understood meteorological process with both internal (thunderstorms and electrified clouds) and external (space weather/cosmic ray) inputs having weather and climate implications. We have recently shown that a small but statistically significant sun-weather linkage occurs via the atmospheric electric circuit and that the linkage mechanism has an appropriately enhanced meteorological response associated with distant but more dominant generators of this circuit. The process has both natural (variations in cosmic rays; electrical meteorological climate variations may have a modified influence on global climate by this process) and anthropogenic (via global warming) climate implications.

Public summary of the season progress:
Electric field data were collected at Vostok and Concordia on the Antarctic Plateau to measure the atmospheric circuit. We have quantified the local contributions (solar wind and local meteorology) to the Vostok measurements. The solar wind contribution dominates over the local meteorology, confirming that the Vostok measurements largely measure a global signal of electrical meteorological convective activity (expected to increase due to anthropogenic climate change). Minor but statistically significant seasonal influences due to local temperature and wind have been quantified.

Related URL

Link: GET DATA

Description: Download point for the data

Geographic Coverage

(Click for Interactive Map)

Spatial coordinates

	N: -75.1	S: -75.1	E: 123.3	W: 123.3
Min Altitude: 3274 M Max Altitude: 3274 M

Temporal Coverage

Start Date: 2009-01-05

Stop Date: 2012-01-22

Location Keywords

CONTINENT > ANTARCTICA

GEOGRAPHIC REGION > POLAR

Science Keywords

ATMOSPHERE > ATMOSPHERIC ELECTRICITY > ELECTRIC FIELD

ATMOSPHERE > ATMOSPHERIC ELECTRICITY > LIGHTNING

SUN-EARTH INTERACTIONS > IONOSPHERE/MAGNETOSPHERE DYNAMICS > ELECTRIC FIELDS/ELECTRIC CURRENTS

ISO Topic Category

CLIMATOLOGY/METEOROLOGY/ATMOSPHERE

Platform

GROUND STATIONS

GROUND-BASED OBSERVATIONS

Instrument

RDEFM > Rotating Dipole Electric Field Mill

Quality The data are calibrated only against a set of parallel plates mounted in a Faraday box which was placed over the electric field mill. This means that no account has been taken of the compression of the electric field by the metal support. The data should be viewed as relative values. Unlike Vostok, where the EFM is calibrated each month, we were satisfied that the new EFM MarkIII was broadly ...

Access Constraints These data are publicly available for download from the provided URL.

Use Constraints This data set conforms to the PICCCBY Attribution License
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/).

Please follow instructions listed in the citation reference provided at http://data.aad.gov.au/aadc/metadata/citation.cfm?entry_id=ASAC_974... when using these data.

Ancillary Keywords

ELECTRIC FIELD

GEOELECTRICAL CIRCUIT

UNIVERSAL TIME

VERTICAL ELECTRIC FIELD

Data Set Progress

COMPLETE

Originating Center

Australian Antarctic Division

Data Center

Australian Antarctic Data Centre, Australia

Data Center URL: http://data.aad.gov.au

Data Center Personnel
Name: DATA OFFICER AADC Phone: +61 3 6232 3244 Fax: +61 3 6232 3351 Email: metadata at aad.gov.au Contact Address: Australian Antarctic Division 203 Channel Highway City: Kingston Province or State: Tasmania Postal Code: 7050 Country: Australia