Tables 749 {continued) and 750 

 TABLE 749 {continued). — Atmospheric-Electric Data 



597 



: The sign and magnitude of surface values are exceedingly variable from place to place. 



TABLE 750. — Ionic equilibrium in the atmosphere 



Equilibrium for atmospheric ionization occurs when q = an 2 + i)\N n + tiiNn, where n 

 and N are the number of pairs of small and large ions, and N the number of uncharged 

 nuclei; a, 171, 772, are coefficients of recombination of small ions with small ions, with uncharged 

 nuclei, and with large ions. If for both small and large ions the positive and negative are 

 equally abundant, then N /N = 772/771 = 1.28 [reference (12)]. When n/N(£ 2772/a, the 

 equilibrium-condition is expressed by q = pn; is designated the diminution-constant; 

 i//3 = is the "average life" of a small ion in air which contains an abundance of large ions; 

 8 varies inversely as N. 



a: J -55 X I0" 6 cm 3 /sec. [see reference (11)] 



[see references (8), (12), (13)] 



vi- 5 X 10- 

 772: 6 X 10- 6 

 9: Over land, ] 



X7 . ^ ' ,„ ^ C ' --„ Msee reference (8)1 

 Extremes, 10 to 60 sec. l v J 



Over sea, 230 sec. J 



N: Over land, 500 to 50,000 ions/cm 3 [see references (13), (14)] 

 Aitken nuclei, number per cm 3 : 



Over open country, up to io 5 [see reference (16)] 

 Over mid-ocean, about 800 [see reference (15)] 

 In free air, 



Altitude 1 km 6,000 5 km 50 \ reference (17) 



3 km 200 8.5 km about 5/ see relerence ^7J 



Smithsonian Tables 



