Evaluation of aerosol effect on electrical conductivity in the lower stratosphere.

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Abstract
Similar to the processes near the ground surface, the influx of aerosol particles may possibly reduce the small-ion density or the atmospheric electrical conductivity in the stratosphere. The function of atmospheric electrical properties to infer the trend of stratospheric particle pollution is examined. Based on the ion-aerosol attachment theory, the size of aerosol particles effectively acting to reduce the small ions is not only in the Aitken range but also extends to the large particle range as the altitude increases. The importance of aerosol size spectrum in this process is emphasized. Number densities of large particles necessary to give a detectable reduction in conductivity are estimated at various altitudes for typical aerosol size distributions and compared with the results of balloon observation.

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