Articles | Volume 21, issue 2
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-927-2021
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-927-2021
Research article
 | 
25 Jan 2021
Research article |  | 25 Jan 2021

The electrical activity of Saharan dust as perceived from surface electric field observations

Vasiliki Daskalopoulou, Sotirios A. Mallios, Zbigniew Ulanowski, George Hloupis, Anna Gialitaki, Ioanna Tsikoudi, Konstantinos Tassis, and Vassilis Amiridis

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Cited articles

Anisimov, S. V., Afinogenov, K. V., and Shikhova, N. M.: Dynamics of undisturbedmidlatitude atmospheric electricity: From observations to scaling, Radiophys. Quantum El.., 56, 709–722, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11141-014-9475-z, 2014. 
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Bailey, J., Ulanowski, Z., Lucas, P. W., Hough, J. H., Hirst, E., and Tamura, M.: The effect of airborne dust on astronomical polarization measurements, Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc., 386, 1016–1022, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2966.2008.13088.x, 2008. 
Baumgaertner, A. J. G., Lucas, G. M., Thayer, J. P., and Mallios, S. A.: On the role of clouds in the fair weather part of the global electric circuit, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 14, 8599–8610, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-8599-2014, 2014. 
Bering, E. A., Few, A. A., and Benbrook, J. R.: The global electric circuit, Phys. Today, 51, 24–30, https://doi.org/10.1063/1.882422, 1998. 
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This research highlights the detection of charged Saharan dust in Greece and provides indications of charge separation in the plumes through the first-ever co-located ground electric field measurements and sophisticated lidar observations. We provide a robust methodology for the extraction of a fair-weather proxy field used to assess the effect of lofted dust particles to the electric field and insert a realistic modelling aspect to the charge accumulation areas within electrically active dust.
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