The decoupling of fossil-fueled electricity production from atmospheric carbon dioxide emissions via CO2 capture and sequestration (CCS) is increasingly regarded as an important means of mitigating climate change at a reasonable cost. Engineering analyses of CO2 mitigation typically compare the cost of electricity for a base generation technology to that from a similar plant with CO2 capture an...

Abstract—An entirely electrostatic view of the earth upper atmosphere system, as understood for example, by Lord Kelvin, underwent a paradigm shift around 1900 with definitive observations of sustained ion production in atmospheric air. Cosmic ray ionisation of atmospheric air, together with a potential difference between the upper atmosphere and the earth’s surface, yield vertical atmospheric ...

Atmospheric aerosol acts to reduce the background concentration of natural cluster ions, and to attenuate optical propagation. Hence, the presence of aerosol has two consequences, the reduction of the air’s electrical conductivity and the visual range. Ion-aerosol theory and Koschmieder’s visibility theory are combined here to derive the related non-linear variation of the atmospheric electric ...

An Advanced Development Program (ADP) to develop and demonstrate effective Atmospheric Electricity Hazards Protection (AEHP) for the fighter, transport/bomber, helicopter and cruise missile classes of air vehicles is being conducted under an Air Force Wright Aeronautical Laboratories (AFWAL) contract with Boeing Military Airplane Company (BMAC). Other Government agencies are also supporting the...

We propose a mechanism to explain suggested links between seismic activity and ionospheric changes detected overhead. Specifically, we explain changes in the natural extremely low frequency (ELF) radio noise recently observed aboard the DEMETER satellite at night, before major earthquakes. Our mechanism utilises increased electrical conductivity of surface layer air before a major earthquake, w...

A model for ball lightning (BL) is described. It is based upon the vorton model for elementary particles, which exploits the symmetry between electricity and magnetism. The core, or driving engine, of BL in this model is comprised of a vorton-antivorton plasma. The energy of BL, which derives from nucleon decay catalyzed by this plasma, leads, through various mechanisms, to BL luminosity as wel...