Orographic features of global atmospheric fair weather electrical parameters over different places of Sri Lanka

Altitude variation of fair weather atmospheric electrical parameters such as atmospheric conductivity, air-earth current density, electric field, and atmospheric potential have been analyzed over 210 different places of Sri Lanka when the fair weather conditions were being existed. Atmospheric electrical conductivity and current density on the surface of ground of hilly (high altitude) areas have been found to be increased with height from sea level, while constant value is observed for the electric field in all instants and atmospheric potential on surface of ground of hilly (high altitude) areas decreases with height from sea level (altitude) in Sri Lankan orography (This is not confused with the vertical upward variation at a particular place). Best fit regression lines along with the statistical parameters between the atmospheric electrical parameters and different heights from sea level have been utilized for the different orography of Sri Lanka when clean and clear atmosphere are being existed to verify the assumption of fair weather conditions. Keywords: Atmospheric conductivity; Electric field; Orography; Cosmic rays. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4038/sljp.v13i1.2104 Sri Lankan Journal of Physics, Vol. 13(1) (2012) 09-16