Middle atmosphere electrical structure,dynamics and coupling

The ram current to ion traps and the insensitivity of ion conductivity to compressibility provide the basis of robust techniques for middle atmosphere measurements. Gerdien condensers are more difficult to implement but provide more information. Mesospheric electrical conductivity shows many orders of magnitude variability, with depressions below gas phase model values indicating dominance by aerosol particles. The mobility of these ions has been directly measured and indicates particles of thousands of AMU. Large mesospheric fields have come into question, and diagnostic measurements show that many such measurements may be artifacts. However, some measurements of V/m fields with symmetrical and redundant sensors appear to be real. These fields complicate the “mapping” picture of electrical coupling and may also modulate the transport of aerosol particles. They are probably related to neutral atmosphere dynamics and/or the aerosol particles. Lightning couples much more energy to the middle atmosphere and above than previously suspected, primarily in the ELF-ULF range. There are many important unanswered questions in this relatively unexplored frontier area which may be answered with low cost balloon and sounding rocket experiments.