Modeling the Global Circuit Response to Solar Activity

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The investigators will develop a model of the distribution of current flow in the return path of the global electric circuit. The model will incorporate effects of stratospheric clouds and aerosols, energetic electron precipitation, tropospheric clouds, and atmospheric electricity. The goal is to improve understanding of the global circuit including approximations and influences not treated in existing models. Tropospheric clouds create a high resistance that impedes downward current flow and increases ionospheric potential that increases the current flow in fair weather regions. Stratospheric aerosols reduce ion mobility and increase recombination and resistivity. These similarly increase ionospheric potential and redistribute the current flow into latitude bands where there is a lower concentration of stratospheric aerosols. Polar stratospheric clouds may have the same effect in the locations and at the times they are present. Energetic electron precipitation also modulates the stratospheric resistivity variations. The investigators will model the latitudinal variations of these effects and compare the model output with observations. The work will be valuable for understanding the observations of changes in current flow in response to solar activity. This is important for understanding the role of solar variability in global climate change.