Fair-weather atmospheric electric field measurements at Gulmarg, India

In the present study, the atmospheric electric field observations are reported at Gulmarg station, Kashmir (34°05′N; 74°42′E) for a period of 1 year: June 2019–May 2020. The observation site is situated in an area with high thunderstorm activity and very high radon concentration. Diurnal characteristics of PG are explained with electrode effect under summer/dry surface conditions and evaporation effect under winter/wet surface conditions associated with sunrise. The latter effect is highly responsible for the diurnal peak of PG observed in afternoon (1300 LT) hours along with the water vapour pressure under low temperature. Similarly, excess positive charges found at the electrode layer shift the diurnal peak to an earlier time ~1000–1100 LT under turbulent exchange from the surface. Therefore, the annual mean curve is the resultant of these two effects that act in different seasons. In addition, the annual diurnal variation of the potential gradient is in agreement with some other continental stations having two maxima and higher values of PG during the winter months. The secondary diurnal maximum (2000 LT) is likely due to African thunderstorm activity being reflected strongly at our measurement site. Comparison of our results with Carnegie leads to a weak correlation between the two, which is due to the difference in the nature of observation sites, while a comparison with the observations of B N Raina (August 1970–October 1973) at the same observatory reveals a similar nature of PG variation. Finally, simple correlation plots of PG with meteorological parameters and radon concentration have been shown. The results indicate that radon concentration and meteorological parameters like temperature, relative humidity in addition to water vapour pressure are important local factors influencing the surface PG measurements at our site.