Atmospheric Electricity: Sources, Dynamics, and Impacts on the Environment

This study is a review of the sources, dynamics and impacts of atmospheric electricity on the environment. Atmosphere ions are responsible for a weak flow of atmospheric electricity. These atmospheric ions are generated from different sources such as cosmic rays, radioactive gases, air radiolysis, lightning, waterfall, corona discharge, combustion and radioactive effluent from nuclear tests. These ions have different mobility depending on their sizes and the kind of charges they carry. The potential gradient between the atmospheric air and the earth's surface causes ions to move from the atmosphere, which is the positively charged region to the earth surface, which is the negatively charged region. The electric field in the air near the earth surface is 100 V/m. Negative small ions have higher mobility than positive small ions. High concentration of positive air ions poses a serious threat to human health, but negative ions promote the well-being of humans and living organisms.