Abstract
I am not writing this article with skepticism because the next COP summit will be held in Dubai from November 30 to December 12, 2023, because the president of the conference is an oilman (Dr. Sultan Al Jaber). I have nothing against oil as a resource of the planet, and I would have nothing against the use of fuels to produce energy, if the scientific and technological level of the state of the art on Earth were able to neutralize all the side effects that such use produces in the surrounding environment (thermal, chemical, biological, acoustic). In fact, I have also proposed an alternative use of the oil resource. One of my most important inventions, which no one has financed, is called “Artificial Welling”. This invention could at least triple current world food production at very low costs. This important invention could never be achieved without petroleum derivatives. In fact, the production of natural fish currently occurs through natural welling which occurs only in 5% of the surface of the oceans which correspond to the coastal areas, where sea waves create currents which allow the carbonates deposited in the seabed to rise to the surface producing the phyto plankton which allows the development of zooplankton. To create artificial welling it is necessary to create artificial islands dedicated to fishing and tourism offshore the oceans, far from earthquakes and tsunamis. Probably with this solution we could also solve the problem of migrants, giving them the opportunity to find a job and a home. My solutions on that topic are described in the following articles and patent filings:
10.06.2016 https://www.spawhe.eu/floating-system-with-extruded-polyethylene-pipes-ribbed-reinforced-and-filled-with-polystyrene/ , 10.06.2016 https://www.spawhe.eu/floating-system-hydroelectric-desalter-extractor-of-calcium-and-carbon-from-marine-deep-water/. However, in this article I don’t want to talk about artificial welling, but about more practical and concrete topics that concern our daily lives.
In 2023, all citizens of the world, with a minimum of scientific and technological culture, should ask themselves, what are the reasons why, for example, a heat pump air conditioner, or a small and medium-sized car , they cost so little that almost all families in the most advanced countries can take advantage of them. The answer is apparently simple, but also deceptive: they cost little because they are mass-produced in large numbers thanks to the automation of industrial work. The tricky part is that heat pump air conditioners exchange the internal heat of homes with the external heat of the environment, contributing to global warming of the planet. This occurs due to the fact that air/air heat exchangers produce a greater quantity of vapor and CO2 in the Earth’s atmosphere. If world legislators had required air conditioner manufacturers to use air/water heat exchangers, air conditioners would cost even less because the heat exchange would be more efficient, but users would have been forced to build other anthropic systems to exchange the heat with the water which would disperse the heat underground. Therefore, governments and for them legislators should have forced builders and homeowners to build geothermal wells if they want to enjoy air conditioning, without warming the planet globally. Unfortunately, scientific advisors to governments and legislators have not explained this to world politicians and legislators and they have not imposed it on citizens. This is one of the trivial causes that contribute to global warming. As regards cars that use combustion engines, the tricky part is very different, as the thermal cycles cannot be closed underground, as the systems are mobile. Therefore, the scientific advisors of governments and legislators should have explained that cars with internal combustion engines are not compatible with the earth’s environment. How could public science advise governments to change the energy solution for mobile systems if it did not even do so for systems that produce heat and cold in fixed systems?Those who govern, those who legislate and those who administer justice cannot do without the scientific and technological support of public science which must be critical of the manufacturers of air conditioners, cars, trucks, agricultural tractors, ships, airplanes and builders of the works civilians and homes. Unfortunately, it seems that public scientific supervisors do not exist and consumer society is forced to absorb all the commercial inventions produced by multinationals. Why is it so difficult to force manufacturers of cars and other means of transport and work to use another energy system, since cars and other means of transport do not only produce CO2 and steam. They also produce other toxic emissions, such as CO, NOx, SOx, lead oxides, fine particles. Therefore, it would have been necessary to completely change the technology used.
In this article I have taken the liberty of including extensive summaries of two articles written by academic scholars who illustrate much better than myself the problems and normal functioning of the terrestrial environment, while I, as a simple designer and installer of industrial and environmental anthropic systems, I am only concerned with proposing solutions by trusting their information, just as I have trusted the information provided separately by famous scientists of the past. I believe I simply did my job by respecting their information, but since none of my forty inventions that I proposed to solve the problem of global warming were taken into consideration, I wondered, if I interpreted their information correctly. Newton asserted that what we know is a drop while what we don’t know is an ocean. I believe that after four centuries from the time in which he lived, it is not necessary to know the entire ocean but only to learn from the mistakes we have made. These errors are there for all to see but no one sees them, especially science which continues to try to improve systems that cannot be improved because the energy principles used are not compatible with the earth’s environment. It is no coincidence that I am writing this article on the occasion of the 2023 COP, exactly fifty-three years after entering the real, non-academic world of work, first industrial and then environmental. It is no coincidence that I have spent the last eighteen years as an inventor of solutions that are inconvenient for everyone. My activity as an inventor has been based above all on modifying the anthropic systems that I believe are wrong and the few strategic machines that could change them. The machines invented are few but with universal functions, while the systems to be modified are almost all of the existing ones. In conclusion, energy production must be conceived as a driving force internal to the individual anthropic system which must serve to transmit only the physical force externally without thermal, chemical, nuclear, electrical, electrostatic, which are unwanted by the earth’s environment. However, in particular cases, we can exploit the electromagnetic principles necessary to communicate information and to allow us to add together the Lorentz thrust, which in mobile plants must complement that of Newton to allow us to travel even in the atmosphere, in submarine and space plants , but using as primary energy source only the terrestrial atmospheric air accumulated in pressurized autoclaves and the incompressible water, always maintained in the liquid state of the terrestrial environment. Both water and air can be infinitely renewed even in space with artificial light, chlorophyll photosynthesis and the interstellar dust capture system incorporated into global linear motors, described in the articles and patent filings of the nursery rhyme of https://www,spawhe.eu, still misunderstood by science and obviously, by the world ruling class that created wars, global warming and the unequal distribution of world wealth.
1. What scientifically justifiable strategy are world governments using to combat global warming from the Kyoto Protocol until now?
In this serious global context of the environment, energy, ongoing wars, above all, in Ukraine and the Gaza Strip, the COP, managed by the United Nations and the participating countries, helplessly witness the serious inconvenience caused to the civilian victims of the lack of energy to escape to other countries and defend themselves from the cold, while I, as an unwanted inventor, wonder if my intellectual inventions on means of transport and domestic comfort, which would not require fuel, reported below, had been useful:
14.01.2017https://www.spawhe.eu/hydroelectric-power-auto-with-peripheral-torque-to-the-wheels/, 10.02.2017https://www.spawhe.eu/the-fossil-energy-that-pollute-costs-more-of-clean-energy/,31.07.2017 https://www.spawhe.eu/aerospatial-pressurized-hydroelectric-transport-system-with-turbofan-and-compressed-air-injection/, 30.09.2017https://www.spawhe.eu/the-world-revolution-of-transportation-unwanted-by-manufacturers-by-science-by-the-governments-and-others/, 29.12.2017 https://www.spawhe.eu/compressed-air-is-much-more-powerful-practice-and-economic-of-hydrogen/, 31.01.2020 https://www.spawhe.eu/flying-and-floating-cars-with-interactive-global-linear-motors-and-thrust-of-newton-and-lorentz/, 31.01.2020 https://www.spawhe.eu/aerospace-and-submarine-transport-system-with-interactive-primary-and-inductive-linear-motors/,
29.07.2021 https://www.spawhe.eu/interstellar-dust-capture-system-and-space-environmental-plants/, 14.09.2021 https://www.spawhe.eu/the-worldwide-misunderstanding-of-perpetual-motion-that-has-affected-terrestrial-development-and-space-research/,
13.11. 2021 https://www.spawhe.eu/the-g20s-and-cop2627-cannot-understand-what-science-has-not-yet-understood/, 12.05.2023 https://www.spawhe.eu/flying-containers-for-rescuing-migrants-and-extinguishing-fires-without-using-fuel/.
The world authorities are unanimously accepting cars with energy accumulators which double the costs of cars, and are forcing municipalities to equip themselves with a specific network for recharging the batteries, and increasing CO2 emissions even further because the performance of a car energy accumulator can be a maximum of eighty percent. It therefore leads to a 20% greater consumption of fossil energy and greater CO2 emissions into the environment globally, with the illusory sensation of having made cities less polluted. Why does an intelligent person like Helon Musk, who in addition to being the richest man in the world is also one of the largest manufacturers of electric cars, not understand such simple reasoning? Why did he pretend to want to give a prize of 100 million dollars to whoever captured CO2 from the atmosphere?
01.02. 2021 https://www.spawhe.eu/open-letter-to-mr-elon-musk-who-promised-100-million-dollars-to-those-who-manage-to-capture-co2-from-the-atmosphere/, It was not known to whom this award was given, certainly not to the undersigned who made public the above open letter, to which, logically, Elon Musck did not respond. However, if we wanted to pretend that electric cars were useful for something, larger vehicles that transport long distances, agricultural tractors, and those that work on construction sites, marine and aeronautical transport would be left out of this system. Even the railway ones, which although they are powered by electricity, without energy accumulators, this is produced by thermal power plants. But the problem is general and concerns all human, civil and industrial activities.Who are the scientific advisors to world governments? Why don’t those who govern the world think with their own heads like normal heads of families? The best profit is saving and has nothing to do with the consumer society. Before making any investment it is necessary to carefully study the production and purification cycles on paper at the same time. Every operation must be done in the right place, at the right time and with technology updated to the latest state of the art. If the technology is not updated to carry out operations in the right place at the right time it is necessary to make updates.If the consumer society in which we live does not understand or pretends not to understand the importance of scientific technological updates and work organization, inventors have nothing left to do but develop intellectual patents even if no one finances, experiments and creates them. Who can afford to be an inventor in such absurd working conditions? I believe I am the living answer to this question because none of my forty inventions have been realized. But with a little imagination I hypothesized them to function in various industrial and environmental contexts, noticing the defects and always improving them virtually, to the point of vastly surpassing the current state of the art with some strategic inventions in the most important sectors of environmental prevention, the production of clean energy, food production and public health, exploiting the interactive principles that have always existed in nature, obviously enhanced locally with virtual technological inventions that must be tested and developed with adequate funding, especially public and impartial. It is clear that these inventions are not appreciated by the current centers of power which enrich themselves by producing environmental disasters and also enrich themselves by carrying out reconstructions without changing anything substantial at the scientific, technological and global design levels of fixed and mobile anthropic plants. Therefore, COP 28 inherits the unresolved problems of COP 27 and which it inherited from COP 26 and so on, left awaiting solutions from the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, signed by the major world countries, during COP 3, when the concentration of CO2 in the environment was still 370 ppm as can be read from the Keeling curve published on Wikipedia. Today, the concentration of CO2 is over 420 ppm, while global public science has not even solved the problem of air conditioners which, at least for fixed civil systems, could have been solved with tax breaks, given that there was no need for any new technology. In this context of global hypocrisy, no one has noticed, especially the scientific advisors of the United Nations and governments, that the technology to change the entire world development is within reach as not only air conditioning and transport are under accusation , but all the anthropic plants, which from producers of dirty and expensive energy, could have been transformed into producers of free clean energy, which would even protect the environment, simply by exploiting the interactive physical, chemical, biological and fluid-dynamic principles that have always existed in terrestrial nature. These principles were identified separately by Torricelli, Newton, Venturi, Pascal, Henry, Dalton, before the invention of electric energy. With the invention of electrical energy and in particular of electric motors and current generators, the potential of these principles can be locally enhanced by increasing both the purification capacity and the production of the electrical energy itself, without producing any form of pollution, since the electrical energy used by electric motors and current generators, used on mobile means of transport and work, can and must be produced cold on the same means of transport or work, otherwise the circuits that produce the driving torques or the electromagnetic linear thrusts which are based on thin copper wires protected with insulating paints wound in coils which must be well away from heat sources. Obviously, by cold producing electricity, which would be extracted directly from the environment, in addition to eliminating pollution, immense economic resources would be saved. Therefore, the primary energy source of mobile systems that makes the permanent magnets move in an electric field cannot be any of the current thermal, nuclear, solar, wind or electrolytic energies for very simple reasons of size and weight of the systems necessary to move permanent magnets in a more or less infinite time, without heavy fuel tanks, nuclear reactors, solar panels, wind turbines, hydrolytic tanks. Therefore, the ecological transition that is being talked about worldwide is a big hoax that is causing the entire world population to waste immense economic resources in order not to admit that primary terrestrial energy is offered for free by nature itself. It is the current governments and the current multinationals that want to continue to make all the people of the world pay, only because no inventor of the present or the past has noticed the scam. I don’t know what happens in other countries in the world, but what happens in Italy is simply absurd. I am not speaking as an inventor, but as a user of the electricity and gas supply. With the free energy market, electricity and gas suppliers have multiplied. Even the Italian post office sells electricity and gas. All these energy suppliers make low prices to grab customers and then suddenly increase prices, forcing customers to change suppliers every year to find who offers the best price. To the gas costs we must also add the annual or biannual costs for boiler overhauls. All this is ridiculous because if we extracted energy from the environment with the inventions proposed by the undersigned, gas would not be needed and all users would become producers of their own energy, perfectly compatible with the environment without having to pay for any boiler overhaul.Obviously, the same thing would also apply to the review of public and private means of transport if they used the same type of energy, at least as regards environmental pollution.
2. What are the reasons why governments, instead of encouraging inventions of public social and environmental utility, hide them?
It was not easy to discover where the huge global scam of inefficient purification and expensive and polluting energy was hidden. Even more difficult is to understand the silence that surrounds me, as if I were a madman who needed to be hospitalized. If I had not gone into the details of the scientific organization of environmental work to put it on the same level as that of industrial work, not even the undersigned would have noticed the current scientific and technological inconsistencies. In fact, today we are in a paradoxical situation. Industrial plants are adequate in terms of production capacity for global needs, but are not adequate in terms of environmental protection, while environmental and energy plants are not adequate either in terms of the quality of environmental protection or in terms of capacity. of energy production.
Only by going into the details of the scientific organization of work globally, both from an industrial and environmental point of view, is it possible to identify errors. It was no coincidence that the undersigned began working as an inventor in retirement. First I spent seventeen years in the design and organization of industrial work and subsequently I lived for twenty years as an installer of environmental and energy systems designed and contracted by public bodies, in Italy and Tunisia. Per il sottoscritto, non è possibile progettare gli impianti antropici ambientali ed energetici terrestri senza seguire i cicli di lavoro ideali, passo dopo passo, scegliendo sempre la soluzione migliore, più semplice ed economica nota allo stato dell’arte. In industry this happens regularly. We carefully study the order in which the components must be assembled on the assembly lines and even the movements that the workers and robots, which in some cases, replace humans, must make. While in the environmental and energy sectors it seems that everything is left to chance. The fumes disperse from the chimneys, the waters and sludge mix and acidify each other in very long and tortuous sewerage paths, without public science and plant managers welcoming the criticisms and suggestions of people like myself, who propose innovations selflessly. When I proposed water saving solutions, to modify the chimneys, the sewers, the purifiers to follow step by step the transformation cycles of all the elements involved in the sewerage processes, to prevent acidification of the water and sludge, no one took my inventions were taken into consideration, not only in Italy, but also abroad, when I translated the publications into English and created a special website https://WWW. SPAWHE.eu. Practically, for current global public science it is not possible to design anthropic plants globally, creating common purification cycles between water and air.
Yet, my choice to create common cycles between water and air in sewers and vertical purifiers with overlapping biological ponds never created on planet earth, in the following years proved successful, because it allowed me to raise the waters of the overlapping ponds by extracting the energy from the environment from the environment and therefore also to reduce the costs of purification. Obviously, the purified raised waters could have produced for free the artificial rainfall that I had proposed in the limestone greenhouses to produce carbonates in the same purified waters to fight the acidification of rivers, lakes and seas, consuming the CO2 that had previously been captured together with the fumes by special modified chimneys, equipped at the upper end with an expansion chamber containing electrostatic filters which would have eliminated all the more or less fine dust. Both the modified chimneys and the vertical buildings with overlapping biological ponds are international patents that cannot be financed by any public body in the world.
The Italian and global public bodies that talk about ecological transition, based on new generation nuclear energy and hydrogen transformed into fuel, are demonstrating that they have not yet understood that the true ecological transition is the one that arises from the study of the strengthening of interactive principles terrestrials at the temperature of the terrestrial environment. If these public bodies, instead of studying energies that do not belong to terrestrial nature, had studied the simplest and most economical ways to clean the fossil energy dirtied by the use of fuels, as the undersigned did, sooner or later, as happened at undersigned would have realized that it is simpler and cheaper to extract clean energy directly from the environment, because nature had already made all the arrangements so that we could extract it without costs in every corner of the earth precisely by exploiting the interactive principles of the earth. Obviously, the undersigned can say this with hindsight, because first I tried my hand at saving domestic water and automatically dosing calcium oxide and ferric chloride in toilet flushes to prevent the formation of hydrogen sulphide in the sewers and anticipate the purification of phosphates produced by detergents. I also tried my hand at modifying the chimneys to capture the fumes with electrostatic filters before they go into the atmosphere, at modifying the sewers by inserting sedimentation tanks equipped with surface oxidation and calcareous rain, then I tried my hand at designing vertical synergistic buildings (VSB), with overlapping production of vegetables, cereals, etc., flanked by overlapping organic ponds. These buildings would have been used to use CO2 as carbonic fertilizer and the biological ponds as purifiers which, rising upwards, would produce increasingly cleaner water, which, descending downwards through limestone greenhouses, would consume more CO2, producing alkaline water. The pumps, motors, fans, compressors and air diffusers that I would use in my systems, never built on planet Earth, would be equally subject to wear and tear on the materials, but to a lesser extent than what they consume in current systems, since they would always work at the ordinary temperatures of the terrestrial environment, without the thermal shocks due to thermal energy and even more so to nuclear energy.
However, to address environmental problems seriously, in addition to repairing the damage caused, it is necessary to enter into environmental and energy solutions and immediately ban the energies that produce CO2 but also steam. Therefore, we must exclude both fossil and nuclear energy from planet Earth. I extract from a recent article of mine (https://www.spawhe.eu/lets-talk-about-the-responsibilities-of-floods-and-other-even-more-serious-responsibilities/) the following paragraph, I don’t use my own words, but an article extracted from the following internet page: https://skepticalscience.com/translation.php?a=19&l=17
Water vapor is the predominant greenhouse gas. The radiant flux of water vapor caused by its greenhouse gas characteristic is around 75 W/m2 while CO2 makes a contribution of 32 W/m2 (Kiehl 1997). This proportion is confirmed by measurements of infrared generation returning to the earth’s surface (Evans 2006). Water vapor is also the one that makes the main contribution as a positive feedback to the earth’s climate system and is also the main cause of why the temperature is so affected by changes in CO2 concentration. Unlike other external forcings such as CO2 that can be added to the atmosphere, the level of water vapor is a function of air temperature. Water vapor is transported into the atmosphere through the evaporation process, the extent of which depends on the temperature of the oceans and the air, being governed by the Clausius-Clapeyron formula. If excess water is introduced into the atmosphere this condenses and returns as rain or snow within a week or two. Similarly, if a certain amount of humidity is withdrawn from the atmosphere, evaporation will restore the “normal level” in a short time. Water vapour, being directly related to temperature, is also a positive feedback factor and is in practice the main positive feedback factor of the climate system (Soden 2005). As the temperature increases, evaporation increases and more water vapor accumulates in the atmosphere. As a greenhouse gas, water vapor absorbs heat and warms the air which in turn promotes further evaporation. When CO2 is added to the atmosphere, being a greenhouse gas in turn, it has a warming effect, and therefore causes more water to evaporate and heat the air, reaching a higher stable threshold. Warming due to CO2 therefore has an amplifying effect. What is the magnitude of this amplification? Without other feedbacks, a doubling of the CO2 concentration would cause the planet’s temperature to rise by about 1°C. The water vapor feedback for its part causes the CO2 warming to roughly double. When other feedbacks are included (e.g. albedo reduction due to melting ice) the overall warming from a doubling of CO2 is around 3°C (Held 2000). The amplifying effect of water vapor has been observed in the form of global cooling following the eruption of Mount Pinatubo (Soden 2001). The cooling caused the atmosphere to become drier, which in turn amplified the decrease in temperature. The cited climatic response of about 3°C is also confirmed by numerous experimental studies that have examined how the climate has responded to various forcings that occurred in the past (Knutti & Hegerl 2008).
Satellites have detected an increase in atmospheric water vapor of about 0.41 kg/m² per decade since 1988. An evidence and attribution known as a “fingerprint”, which has been used to identify the cause of the increase in water vapor levels in atmosphere (Santer 2007). Fingerprint because it presupposes the adoption of rigorous statistical tests to search for possible explanations of the change in certain properties of the climate system. The results of 22 different climate models (virtually the world’s largest climate models) were combined and found that the recent increase in water vapor over the entire oceanic environment of the planet is not due to solar forcing or a gradual recovery following the eruption by M. Pinatubo in 1991. The primary cause of the “humidification of the atmosphere” has been identified with the increase in CO2 produced by fossil fuels.Both theory and experimental observations and climate models taken together show that the increase in water vapor is around 6-7.5% per degree Celsius of warming in the lower atmosphere. The observed changes in temperature, humidity and atmospheric circulation combine in a physically coherent way. When skeptics cite water vapor as the prevalent greenhouse gas, they are actually referring to the same positive feedback that makes Earth’s climate so sensitive to CO2 as well, thereby confirming the evidence that the warming is man-made. global.
The above article, although not updated with current data, demonstrates that water vapor and the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere influence each other and their increase in the atmosphere is caused by man-made terrestrial plants. If we consider that the percentage of CO2 in the atmosphere before the industrial era was 278 ppm and today it is 420 ppm, we can deduce that the volume of vapor both in the atmosphere has increased in even greater proportions, because, in addition to fixed and mobile thermal plants, there are also nuclear power plants, which do not emit CO2, but huge quantities of steam. CO2, being 1.5 times heavier than air, despite the low percentage, has a much greater impact as it stratifies the waters of oceans and lakes, therefore, it contributes to producing carbonic acid H2CO3 which dissolves in the water, acidifying it at global and therefore further facilitating the evaporation and melting of glaciers.
3. The compatibility between compressed hydroelectromagnetism, the global electrical circuit of the Earth and the universe
I would like to include in my article a broad summary of the following interesting work from the University of Bologna to support the reasons why I have dedicated my retired life to trying to extract energy from the environment without interfering with natural terrestrial processes, as current fossil and nuclear energies do, which produce CO2, combustion oxides and immense quantities of steam. But I am also against the current high voltage transport of electricity as it cannot fail to interfere with the electrical structure of storm clouds together with CO2, combustion oxides, steam, the current bad purifications which do not close all the cycles that open in anthropic plants. Therefore, I am also against current renewables that need to transport energy remotely since even the transport of energy alone has significant economic costs and interferes with the global electrical circuit on Earth. Which, for the undersigned, should have been preserved in the conditions of the pre-industrial era, since, as can be understood from this article, all the alterations of the global electrical circuit have produced the current climate changes. The solutions proposed by the undersigned in chronological order in forty patent deposits, of which six deposited internationally and around 110 articles published on my website (https://www.spawhe.eu) would have gradually allowed the cleaning of fossil energy and subsequently the extraction of clean primary energy directly from the environment, in fixed and mobile systems, which would have transmitted externally only the physical and electromagnetic force to work and move in space, without producing CO2, combustion oxides, steam , radioactivity. I hope that the authors who wrote the article below share my work as an investor, as I share the research work they have carried out.
Alma Mater Studiorum University of Bologna
Degree Course in Atmospheric Physics and Meteorology
electrical structure of storm clouds
Speaker: Prof. Vincenzo Levizzani
Co-supervisor: Dr. Stefano Dietrich
Presented by: Francesco Barbano Academic Year 2012/2013
Chapter 1. Historical background: electricity in the atmosphere
Lo studio e la comprensione dei fenomeni elettrici è oggetto abbastanza recente della storia dell’umanità, seppure manifestazioni elettriche naturali siano osservabili sulla Terra da prima della nascita dell’homo sapiens. Infatti, secondo la letteratura, fu William Gilbert (1540-1603), sico, prestante servizio presso la regina Elisabetta I, il primo ad osservare fenomeni elettrici in maniera scientica [1]. Gilbert capì che solo certe classi di materiali potevano eettivamente interagire con i campi elettrici, segnando così la distinzione tra materiali isolanti e conduttori. Lo studio di ciò che oggi viene chiamata elettrostatica ebbe un notevole sviluppo a cavallo tra diciassettesimo e diciottesimo secolo, grazie allo sviluppo di nuove tecnologie e strumentazioni, quali ad esempio la bottiglia di Leyden, e alla nascita delle prime accademie scientiche: la Royal Society a Londra e l’Académie des Sciences a Parigi. Una delle pietre miliari nella comprensione dei fenomeni elettrici atmosferici la pose Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) il quale ipotizzo che i fulmini fossero scariche elettriche che trasportano cariche presenti in nube (la qual teoria fu poi vericata sperimentalmente da Thomas-Francois d’Alibard (1703-1799) nel 1752). In questo stesso periodo iniziarono le prime osservazioni riguardanti i temporali e la loro struttura elettrica. Nel 1753, JohnCanton (1718-1772) scoprì che in atmosfera l’elettricità è presente anche in condizioni di fair-weather. Verso la fine del ‘700 una serie di misurazioni da parte di John Read (1726-1814) permisero le prime stime di quanticazione dell’elettricità atmosferica. Fu in questo periodo che esperimenti di laboratorio iniziarono a mostrare la possibilità di avere cariche in movimento. Charles-Augustin Coulomb (1736-1806) notò che la carica di un oggetto viene dissipata a contatto con l’aria tanto più rapidamente quanto più è umida l’aria stessa: Così, seppur come corollario alla legge di repulsione elettrostatica alla quale stava lavorando, Coulomb scoprì la conduttività elettrica dell’aria, anche se la spiegazione relativa a questa proprietà arrivò solo un secolo più tardi con la scoperta dell’elettrone. Si dovette perciò attendere la fine del diciannovesimo secolo perché lo studio dell’elettricità atmosferica divenisse più sistematico, grazie alle scoperte e alle intuizioni in campo elettromagnetico da parte di Faraday e Maxwell, e all’avvento di nuovi apparati sperimentali. Risalgono al questo periodo infatti le misurazioni del campo elettrico atmosferico (anche conosciuto come Potential Gradient, PG) e le prime teorizzazioni del campo elettrico di nube. Grazie a questi nuove scoperte Lord Kelvin (1824-1907) fu in grado di concludere che l’elettricazione è una proprietà dell’atmosfera in condizioni di fairweather, confermando così i primi approcci all’argomento avanzati da Coulomb. Il successivo avvento dei palloni sonda, accompagnato dalle scoperte di Thomson e Rutherford circa elettroni e ionizzazione, diede un nuovo input alla ricerca. Fu in questo periodo che venne formulato il concetto di mobilità ionica, denita come la velocità di uno ione posto all’interno di un campo elettrico. Parallelamente agli studi dei due fisici, un gruppo di quattro scienziati, Ebert, Gerdien, Elser e Geitel, sviluppò strumentazioni per la misura in situ; equipaggiando i palloni sonda con questi nuovi strumenti fu possibile misurare la conduttività lungo la verticale dell’atmosfera, raccogliendo dati direttamente in loco. Così facendo vennero misurati, con risultati molto più precisi che in passato, PG e conduttività dell’aria fino ad altezze di 9 km; ciò permise di determinare grandezze come la corrente di conduzione totale, che in troposfera è sostanzialmente indipendente dalla quota. Analogamente furono condotte misurazioni in situ del campo elettrico di nube che permise di avere i primi dati sperimentali sulla struttura elettrica della nube stessa. Con l’avvento della fisica moderna, lo studio dell’elettricità atmosferica entrò in una nuova fase. Nei primi anni del ventesimo secolo fu formulata la teoria del circuito elettrico globale che servì da collante a tutte le precedenti misurazioni atmosferiche. In questo modo si è potuto dare un background sul quale andare a riportare le misurazioni fatte con tecniche che ancora oggi sono in fase di sosticazione. Alle già citate misurazioni in situ e tramite i palloni sonda infatti va aggiunta tutta la branchia relativa al remote sensing, ottimizzata con l’avvento dei satelliti. Sfruttando le nuove tecnologia si è così potuto avere un quadro generale molto accurato per quanto riguarda elettricità in cielo sereno e in nube. Ad oggi la teoria del circuito globale è alla base dello studio dell’elettricità atmosferica.
Chapter 2. Global electric circuit
2.2 Sources of atmospheric electric charges and ions
Experimental evidence has demonstrated the presence of charges of both in the atmosphere
signs. In general there are two mechanisms considered predominant in the production of
these charges, and both concern the ionization of neutral molecules.
2.2.1 Radiation emitted from the Earth’s surface
The Earth’s crust contains a large quantity of radiative isotopes which emit charged subatomic particles with large energies (primarily alpha and beta particles) and ionizing radiation (gamma rays). Typical energies of these particles are of the order of MeV. Both alpha and beta particles have a very limited mean free chimney in the lower troposphere and therefore contribute in a somewhat limited manner to atmospheric loading. In fact, it is above all gamma rays that ionize neutral tropospheric molecules into positive ions and free electrons. While the former are large and have poor mobility, free electrons have considerable mobility, so they quickly attach to the particles with which they interact, usually aerosols as they are electrochemically reactive, charging them. This process leads, in general, to the formation of clusters of aerosol particles, which in turn will have an advantage in the formation of cloud drops, compared to the ultrafine particulates also present in the atmosphere. Thanks to the presence of a non-neutral charge on the particles, many more condensation nuclei will be formed than would be the case in the absence of ionization processes.Furthermore, the vapor present in the atmosphere will be more likely to attach itself to clusters of aerosol particles, which in turn will have an advantage in the formation of cloud drops, compared to the ultrafine particulates also present in the atmosphere. Thanks to the presence of a non-neutral charge on the particles, many more condensation nuclei will be formed than would be the case in the absence of ionization processes. Furthermore, the vapor present in the atmosphere will be more likely to attach itself to a charged aerosol substrate rather than a neutral one, causing the minimum activation threshold of the condensation nuclei themselves to drop, as shown in figure 2.1. This process has very important climatic implications which are still of great scientific interest today.
2.2.2 Cosmic rays
They are charged subatomic particles of very high energy that enter the Earth’s upper atmosphere. Cosmic rays have a dual origin: the Sun (and are called solar cosmic rays, SCR) or other stars and galaxies (and are called galactic cosmic rays, GCR). Their entry into the upper atmosphere is modulated by solar activity and the Earth’s magnetic field. They are composed of 90% protons4, 9% helium nuclei and 1% other nuclei. When cosmic rays enter the Earth’s atmosphere they ionize the molecules they come into contact with, forming pairs of ions very similar to those formed in the lower troposphere. Furthermore, given the high energies transported, following ionization a large number of secondary particles are produced, such as pions, muons, kaons and mesons.
2.3 Leakage current
Due to the presence of the fair weather electric field, atmospheric ions are subject to an acceleration in the direction established by the sign of their charge. The positive ions, therefore, will be accelerated towards the ground while the negative ones towards the upper atmosphere. The flow of charges constitutes an electric current, called conduction current.
As just discussed in the previous paragraph, ions in the upper atmosphere are entirely produced by cosmic rays. In fact, as the density decreases with altitude, the average free path of the particles increases proportionally to the average life of the ions. In this way, the frequency of ion-ion and ion-molecule interactions of other nature decreases, thus increasing ionic concentrations. Experimental measurements show that in the upper atmosphere there is, on average, an equal concentration of positively and negatively charged ions. Since the interaction frequency is very low, the ions behave like a plasma, i.e. an electric fluid, but with a total neutral charge (since positive and negative charges are in equal concentration), which responds to electromagnetic stimuli. An important consequence of the accumulation of free ions in an atmospheric region is the increase in the electrical conductivity of the region itself. Therefore, by imposing an external electric field, which in the atmosphere is the fair weather electric field, on the plasma, the ions contained in it will react producing an induced electric field equal and opposite to the external one. This situation is completely analogous to that of a conductor: the total electric field, sum of the external and induced one, is zero on the conductor, which therefore behaves like an equipotential body. Since the behavior of the plasma in the upper atmosphere is completely similar, it will form an equipotential conducting layer. This layer is estimated to begin between 60 and 80 kilometers above the ground, and is called the electrosphere, and often coincides with the ionosphere. As already discussed, the earth’s surface can also be seen on average as an equipotential conductor, albeit not perfect. Between the two conductors there is a large portion of the atmosphere which, both in fair weather conditions and in the presence of cloud cover, is poorly conductive and, indeed, has a considerable electrical resistance, which varies with altitude. In fact, we go from 10-14 Sm-1 on the ground to 10-7 Sm-1 near the electrosphere. However, the electrical resistance does not make the atmosphere a perfect insulator so current will flow through it, see paragraph 2:3.
2.5 The global circuit. The concept of the global electrical circuit was first proposed by Wilson in the first twenty years of the twentieth century. The model itself is simple: the atmosphere is contained between two equipotential conducting surfaces. There is a potential difference of 200 -300 kV between them. The portion of the atmosphere between the two surfaces is an imperfect insulator, so it allows the passage of current, in both directions, which keeps the atmospheric electric field alive, operating through charge-discharge processes. The discharge processes are attributable to the leakage current, referred to in paragraph 2.3. Charging processes instead concern thunderstorms. Microphysical processes internal to thunderclouds, referred to in chapter 3, allow the formation of a multipolar electrical structure in the cloud itself, with the formation of an intense internal electric field. This configuration allows the cloud to act as a battery that supplies the two equipotential surfaces with positive discharges, upwards, and negative discharges, towards the ground. The conduction current that forms upwards and reaches the ionosphere contributes, together with the supply of charges from cosmic rays, to maintaining the potential between the ionosphere and the earth’s surface. This current is operated by so-called transient luminous events, or TLEs, especially sprites and blue jets, about which relatively little is still known.
Figure 2.2: Reproduction of the global electrical circuit. Currents go with the flow of positive charges. Cosmic rays charge the ionosphere positively while the Earth’s surface is negatively charged.
Figure 2.3: Representation of the global electrical circuit in idealized form. The currents
they follow the flow of positive charges. R2 and I0 are the resistance and respectively
the current within a thunderstorm.
2.5.1 Schumann Resonance, SR, is a group of peaks in the extremely low frequency (ELF) portion of the Earth’s electromagnetic field. Schumann resonances are global electromagnetic resonances, excited by the electrical discharges of lightning in the cavity formed by the Earth’s surface and the ionosphere. Such low frequencies are not attenuated by the earth’s field, except to a minimal extent. In this way they manage to repeatedly circle the globe before dissolving. Constructive interference produces resonant waves from 8 Hz growing at intervals of approximately 6 Hz. The 8 Hz resonance in particular represents a wave whose wavelength is equal to the circumference of the Earth (40,000 km). SRs are good evidence of the veracity of the Earth-ionosphere system, in addition to the fact that they can be used to monitor individual positions on the Earth’s surface. This last feature allows us to study the variability in global lightning occurrences. This is possible thanks to the large correlation present between the SR background signal and the global lightning frequency.
Furthermore, since the transient signal of the SRs is well correlated with the atmospheric sprites, the resonances are also used for monitoring the sprites all over the globe. Being dependent only on lightning processes, and therefore on processes dominated by alternating current flows, the SRs are not useful for measurements concerning the fair weather current, as they are a direct current flow.
2.5.2 Climate change.Since 1990, important studies began to emerge on the correlation between the phenomena interacting to form the global electrical circuit and climate change. Price and Rind (1990) were the first to propose the possible correlation between climate change and intensification of lightning activity on a global scale. Subsequently many other scholars made similar analyses. In 1992 Williams showed a close relationship between tropical ground temperatures and monthly changes in SR measured in Rhode Island, USA. Price in 1993 demonstrated a good relationship between diurnal changes in temperature and the diurnal variability of the global electrical circuit. Price again in 1999 managed to correlate the presence of the ionospheric potential with surface temperatures. In the same year, Reeve and Toumi, using satellite measurements, correlated global temperatures and CTG discharges. In 2000, Price linked water vapor concentrations in the upper troposphere with global lightning activity using SRs. The research field is more open and current than ever. Also in this case the usefulness of SR emerges as a tool for monitoring lightning, which in turn influences or is an indicator of quantities such as surface temperature, humidity, amount of rain, intensity of convection and other parameters directly implicated in the processes of climate change.
3.1 Electrical conductivity in cloud. Electrical conductivity is an important quantity even when the background of interest is not a clear sky but a cloudy environment. The cloud rate is controlled by the local balance between ion sources and sinks. The most efficient of the removal processes is precipitation: the ions in fact attach themselves to the cloud drops by conduction and diffusion and then leave the cloud itself if the drops become precipitating. Depending on the intensity of the electric field, the concentration of ions and the amount of charge transported by the latter, the growth of the drops by conduction or diffusion will be favored. The diffusion process of the ions on the drop follows the Kohler curves, although on average the more ions are incorporated, the greater the effects of the electrical charges they carry will be. Other details can be read from the original article available online.
3.1.1 Fair weather clouds.Fair-weather clouds are defined as weakly electrified clouds, whose electric field is substantially that of fair-weather2. For this type of cloud, therefore, diusive growth is favored over conduction growth, so it will be very small and tending towards its typical values in clear sky conditions3. To calculate the flow of ions on the droplets it can be assumed, without loss of generality, that all the droplets are spherical, of equal size and that they carry the same quantity of charge, i.e. the average value of the charge distribution on the droplets themselves. The population of droplets with total charge pe, i.e. n(p), can be determined by balancing the rate of capture of positive ions by droplets with charge pe, with that of negative ions by droplets of charge (p + 1) And. Other details can be read from the original article available online.
3.1.2 Storm clouds. In a cloud formed by droplets of average charge Q, a good approximation for the concentration of positive ions n+ in equilibrium conditions can be estimated from the following equation:
I = an+n- + 4πaND+n+ + B+n+N /3Ea2 (3Ea2 – Q)2
A similar reasoning can be done with negative ions starting from the equation reported above and from the analogous one for negative ions, Phillis (1967) showed that the conductivity in the cloud is significantly reduced as the intensity of the electric field and the concentration of water increases liquid, and moderately with decreasing droplet size. These considerations were later confirmed by experiments conducted by Griths and Latham (1974), thanks to which it was possible to conclude that in clouds whose electric field is very intense the conductivity is generally very weak. This is well suited to the representation of storm clouds, whose electric fields are much more intense than the electric field in fair weather. Some authors, however, report having observed conductivity values within storms that are up to 20 times higher than fair weather values.These results can be explained by means of the theory of Phillis, Griths and Latham assuming an adjustment of the conductivity of the environment adjacent to the cloud which compensates for the decrease that occurred within the cloud itself. The interactions that occur at the edges of the cloud form a “boundary layer” with respect to which the electric field is normal. Then placing ourselves on the boundary layer at z = zB and considering balance conditions between the conductivities inside and outside the cloud (but in the immediate vicinity of the edge) for which AcEc = A0E06.. Other details can be read from the original article available online.
3.2 Electric charge distribution in cloud. As introduced in section 3.1, the electric charge in the cloud resides mainly on the hydrometeors. The electrical structures commonly observed in clouds are a direct consequence of this property of charges. In general, the charge distribution in the cloud is a function of the type of cloud, the intensity of the updraft8 and the size distribution of the drops. The type of cloud is important because in general there are different size distributions depending on whether the cloud has a predominantly horizontal or vertical development. Furthermore, for convective systems there is also a difference when the intensity of the updraft varies; in fact, the more intense and long-lasting the vertical flow, the more likely there will be the production of cloud drops and then precipitants. In this way, the cloud droplet loading mechanisms which will be discussed in paragraph 3.3 are favored. Numerical and dimensional distribution of hydrometeors and intensity of the cloud electric field contribute together to the characterization of the charge distribution, as shown in section 3.1. Depending on the degree of electrification, two categories of clouds are defined: weakly electrified and strongly electrified. On a qualitative level, the former can be referred to as fair weather clouds and the latter as thunderclouds. Finally, there are cases in which the electrical structure of thunderclouds tends to become extreme, in which the electric field suddenly changes sign, such as in supercell-type thunderstorms.
3.2.1 Fair weather clouds. In fair weather clouds the loading is mainly due to the ion-droplet interactions described in section 3.1.1. Since clouds are poor conductors, one can expect a deposition of negative ions at the base of the growing cloud, due to the effect of the fair-weather electric field. Subsequently these charges will be pushed towards higher altitudes due to a more or less intense updraft. In their first phase of growth these clouds will therefore tend to form a negatively charged core which will then be maintained during the subsequent phases. At the same time there will be a process of deposition of positive ions at the top of the cloud, due to the attraction exerted by the previously formed negative pole and the environmental electric field. The ions will be continuously transported within the cloud as a result of the turbulent mixing that affects the top. In this way the upper part of the cloud will present an accumulation of positive charge. What has just been described is the reproduction of a scenario in which the cloud is a bipolar system oriented like the environmental electric field. A verification of this structure comes from experimental data. Observations carried out on stratocumulus, altocumulus and non-precipitating convective cumulus and in the absence of the ice phase confirm the bipolar distribution. However, there are inconsistencies between theory and observation, and between different observations, but they are mostly related to the charge distribution on individual droplets. In fact, the total charge transported by a single drop of cloud is generally greater than the diffusive and conductive theories predict. Despite the numerous findings made, there is still no univocal explanation capable of justifying this anomaly. Thus for each set of measured data an empirical t is constructed, generally valid only for the survey itself from which it takes shape. The only common factors of these empirical formulas are the estimate of a quantity of charge, per single droplet, greater than predicted by theory and the fact that all fits are in quadratic form with respect to the radius. Furthermore, even the sign of the charge is not uniquely determined: by analyzing three successive measurements, respectively carried out by Twomey, Krasnogorskaya and Colgate and Romeo, three different results are observed. The first found the average charge per droplet to be strongly positive, the second to be weakly negative, and the third to be strongly negative. The uncertainties in this area are still very large.
Figure 3.1: Electrical structure of a fair weather cloud
3.2.2 Storm clouds. Global thunderstorm activity is responsible for the existence of the weak negative charge on the Earth’s surface. In general, in fact, CTG discharges transport negative charges to the ground, keeping the global circuit functioning. Several studies conducted on clouds equipped with an electric field sufficient to generate discharges of any kind report the need for a further cloud charging mechanism, in addition to that which involves ions in the diffusion and conduction processes. This mechanism is attributable to the different types of loading to which the droplets are subjected during their growth phase. Similarly to the case of weakly electrified clouds, it is difficult to find a unique formula to establish the total amount of charge carried by the drops. Even in this situation, the observations are very discordant with each other, but there could be a satisfactory justification. The greatest difficulties regarding the description of the electrical properties of thunderclouds, in fact, lie in the impossibility of outlining a basic theory common to all thunderstorms due to the great diversity associated with this type of systems. In fact, thunderstorms originating in different regions present different microphysical characteristics due to the thermodynamic and radiative properties that affect the region itself. The maximum charge physically transportable by a droplet is given by the Rayleigh limit, and is a function of a certain beam power. This limit is reached under conditions of mechanical instability, which is reached when the electrostatic stress on the surface of the drop equals the surface tension. Other details can be read from the original article available online.
The greatest difficulties regarding the description of the electrical properties of thunderclouds, in fact, lie in the impossibility of outlining a basic theory common to all thunderstorms due to the great diversity associated with this type of systems. In fact, thunderstorms originating in different regions present different microphysical characteristics due to the thermodynamic and radiative properties that affect the region itself. The maximum charge physically transportable by a droplet is given by the Rayleigh limit, and is a function of a certain beam power. This limit is reached under conditions of mechanical instability, which is reached when the electrostatic stress on the surface of the drop equals the surface tension. Other details can be read from the original article available online.
The tripolar structure is the simplest possible layering for clouds in which an intense electric field is present. In this sense, a storm core was observed, located around 15C, negatively charged, between two positively charged layers. The negatively charged region and the upper positively charged region considered together form what is called the main dipole in the literature. There are various charging mechanisms, but it would seem reasonable to think that the negative core and positive top originate from the charge separation that occurs following collision and breakup processes to which the ice crystals are subjected during the formation of precipitation. The lower layer, generally coinciding with the melting layer, is supposed to be charged either by induction with respect to the negatively charged earth surface or by partial or total dissolution of the falling crystals which release charges. More complex systems were observed and measured in the second half of the 1990s and led to interesting results. From a study conducted by Stolzenburg et al. (concluded and published in 1998) based on the measurement, by means of weather balloons, of the electric field of 20 thunderstorms, a quadripolar charge structure emerges in the updraft region. The cloud is very similar to the tripolar case, i.e. it has a The tripolar structure is the simplest possible stratification for clouds in which an intense electric field is present. In this sense, a storm core was observed, located around 15C, negatively charged, between two positively charged layers. The negatively charged region and the upper positively charged region considered together form what is called the main dipole in the literature. There are various charging mechanisms, but it would seem reasonable to think that the negative core and positive top originate from the charge separation that occurs following collision and breakup processes to which the ice crystals are subjected during the formation of precipitation. The lower layer, generally coinciding with the melting layer, is supposed to be charged either by induction with respect to the negatively charged earth surface or by partial or total dissolution of the falling crystals which release charges.
More complex systems were observed and measured in the second half of the 1990s and led to interesting results. From a study conducted by Stolzenburg et al. (concluded and published in 1998) based on the measurement, by means of weather balloons, of the electric field of 20 thunderstorms, a quadripolar charge structure emerges in the updraft region. The cloud is very similar to the tripolar case, i.e. it has a thin positively charged region at the base of the cloud, a negative core and a positive overlying area. In addition, there is a further layer at the top of the cloud, very thin and negatively charged, presumably formed by the interaction of cloud molecules with atmospheric ions.
Figure 3.3, shown below, shows a conceptual model of the electrical structure of an isolated thunderstorm in its mature phase, based on the analysis of 49 soundings carried out in different clouds in the conditions just described. On average there are four layers of charge in the updraft region and six outside it. The entire system is shielded by negative charges and the anvil has a predominantly positive charge.
Other details can be read from the original article available online.
3.3 Cloud electrification processes. We will now try to understand what the most efficient mechanisms are for loading a cloud. The commonly accepted starting point is the cause of the formation of the electric field in the cloud, i.e. the separation of charge that occurs during the precipitation formation processes. In fact, large drops will tend to precipitate due to the force of gravity while smaller ones will be pushed upwards by the updraft. It is sufficient that the drops have a net charge that, even in the absence of collisions, a dipolar structure is formed within the cloud. Obviously what has been said can also be extended to ice crystals. To date, there are many mechanisms believed to be responsible, to varying degrees, for the cloud’s electric field, but there is still no certainty as to which of these mechanisms are the main ones. The estimates in this regard are all based on experimental data and empirical theories that are still too specific to individual storm systems to be able to derive a general theory. Given these premises, what is commonly done is to classify loading mechanisms into inductive and non-inductive. Another type of classicization that can be made concerns the drop phase, even if the processes considered most efficient occur in mixed phase conditions. We will try to follow the first division, paying particular attention, however, to processes involving ice/graupel collisions. The convective mechanism will also be analysed, the only one not to connect electrification and hydrometeor growth, but also the only one to create a link between convective dynamics and the structure of the cloud field. First of all, however, it is necessary to establish the requirements to be met so that the electrical structure of a storm is respected. Other details can be read from the original article available online.
3.3.1 Convective Loading. The first to propose a convection-based loading theory underlying cumulonimbus formation was Wilson in the first half of the 1900s. He suggested that the capture of ions by cloud particles led to the initial electrification in thunderstorms. This theory was perfected by Grenet (1947) and brought to completion by Vonnegut (1955). The scenario turns out to be of this type: the updraft transports positive charges from the lower tropospheric layers into the cloud during its cumulation phase. The core of the cloud thus becomes a pole of positive charge. On the thus electrified cloud, an accumulation of negative charge forms at the top and on the lateral bubbles due to the turbulent mixing which triggers the capture of the negative atmospheric ions by the positively charged drops. Subsequently, the downdraft, which develops mainly along the external sides of the cloud, transports the negative charges towards the base, in increasingly internal regions of the cloud itself, again due to the mixing effects involving the boundaries. As the cloud nears the end of the cumulation phase of its evolutionary process, a pole of negative charge forms in the lower region of the cloud itself. Finally, the negative charge is stationed in the lower region of the cloud, favoring the same interaction phenomenon with the positive atmospheric ions that occurs in the upper layers with inverted charges, and which produces a shielding around the boundary. If the process is very intense, a very thin layer of positive charges is formed, again through ionic interaction, at the base of the cloud which completes the tripolar structure. This mechanism is well illustrated in figure 3.6. The cycle continues as long as the updraft is in operation, and actually intensifies the cloud’s electric field as time passes. This mechanism presents problems as there is no charge separation process internal to the cloud, as required by Mason’s requirements, which is able to justify why the discharges occur only after a certain time from the formation of the storm.
Figure 3.6: Cloud loading mechanism during the cumulus and mature stages of cloud evolution.
Regarding his theory Vonnegut himself said:
If this theory is correct, these measurements should reveal large masses of electrically charged air that are some distance away from the precipitation region, a situation that would be unlikely if precipitation were responsible for the electrification… In some cases one might wait until the fields had developed before the precipitation particles formed.
The limits of the proposed model, in light of more recent discoveries, are clear. In fact, since 1956, thanks to Reynolds and Brook, it was understood that the rapid electrification which leads to the formation of discharges in thunderstorms is associated with the growth of ice crystals. Subsequent measurements, by Gaskell and Illingworth (1980) for example, confirmed this latter theory. It is therefore clear that although convection charging is plausible, it is not able to justify the production of discharges. Numerical simulations involving only the convective model were carried out in the early 2000s by Helsdon et al. The results indicated an electric field of insufficient intensity in relation to what was observed in the cloud. Furthermore, it begins to dissipate at the beginning of the mature stage, a phase in which the field should instead be growing. Finally, during its dissipative phase the cloud field would form, due to the interaction with the environmental ions, a barrier against the external conduction current. Ultimately it can be stated that convection alone cannot be a mechanism that guarantees the production of the electric fields actually detected in thunderstorms.
3.3.2 Inductive processes.As a result of the fair-weather electric field that persists outside the cloud in all meteorological conditions, the drops and crystals in the cloud become polarized. Therefore the induced charge will be positive in the Southern hemisphere and negative in the Northern hemisphere. Polarization is the basis of some active cloud loading mechanisms.
Selective ion capture Wilson (1929) proposed an inductive mechanism in which polarized cloud droplets capture suspended ions during the precipitation phase. What happens is that the negative ions found in the area swept by the drop are captured thanks to the interaction with the positive charge on the southern hemisphere of the drop. The same process, with reverse signs, also occurs in the Northern hemisphere, where, however, the capture efficiency is extremely lower because, for the collision to occur, the ions must have a greater terminal velocity than the drop. However, this means that the ions must be rather heavy aggregates, which makes the capture less efficient as the probability of coalescence occurring between the ion and the hydrometeor decreases. Furthermore, positive ions have a lower mobility than negative ones, so their interactions are unfavorable. This is why the net charge of the drops is negative. This mechanism produces a maximum electric field of 50kV m-1, almost an order of magnitude lower than what is usually recorded in thunderstorms. There are essentially two reasons: the limited nature of the charging process and the terminal speeds. In the first case, the insufficient negative charge sedimented on the drop will begin to attract positive ions, discharging itself. In the second case the problem is of a dynamic nature. Capture, as conceived above, is possible only as long as the terminal velocity of the drop is greater than that of the ions (which is calculated by multiplying the intensity of the electric field by the ion mobility).
If this does not happen, the interaction between the drop and the ions is inhibited by the repulsion processes that are triggered given that the negative ions are rejected by the Northern hemisphere and the positive ones generally have a more reduced mobility. Other details can be read from the original article available online.
3.3.3 Non-inductive processes Numerous experiments have demonstrated that charging of cloud particles can occur even in the absence of an external electric field. There are various mechanisms which will be described in this paragraph.
Thermoelectric effect: Reynolds et al. (1957) obtained experimental evidence that cloud crystals became charged following collisions with other crystals having a different temperature. Brook (1958) understood that the charging was due to the diffusion of hydrogen ions due to the temperature gradient that is created on the contact surface. Since H+ ions have a higher mobility than OH, due to the effect of ionic diffusion the colder crystal will be positively charged and the hot one negatively charged. Latham and Mason (1961) constructed a one-dimensional model to reproduce this phenomenon. Assuming a steady-state temperature gradient for all ice crystal species, they derived the potential difference between colliding crystals under steady-state conditions. They therefore obtained a potential gradient with respect to temperature equal to: dV/ dT = 1.9 [mV/ C] Other details can be read from the original article available online.
Contact potential. Parallel to the experiments of Reynolds et al. (1957) regarding the thermoelectric effect, a series of experiments were conducted aimed at interpreting the charge separation not as a consequence of the temperature of the crystals, but in terms of potential difference. In general, in fact, the charge carried by the crystals is not uniformly distributed, therefore when two crystals come into contact, as a result of a collision, the two surfaces will be at a different potential. The potential difference that persists for the entire duration of the contact favors the passage of charges between the crystals, charging them. The loading is different depending on the temperature of the colliding surfaces, the nature and the growth mode of the particles. Ice crystals become positively charged following processes that involve collision and subsequent diffusion of the larger particle to the detriment of the smaller one.
If with this mechanism the larger crystal evaporates instead of diffusing it will acquire a total negative charge. The two processes are effective as long as you are in a temperature range outside the range between Ӏ3C and 0C. In this last range we find the melting layer whose influence on cloud loading will be discussed later. This first form of interaction, however, is not very effective because it excludes all particles that diffuse or evaporate due to heating or cooling effects, for which the contact potential is irrelevant.
A loading of this type is effective only when there is a collision between ice crystals and an ice particle undergoing diffusive growth, in an environment rich in super-molten water. The resulting charge separation varies between 1 and 5 *10-4 C per collision, and, regardless of the sign of charge, there is no direct correlation with temperature.
The rimed crystals, i.e. grown by diffusion in an environment rich in superfused water, thus formed will have a negative charge at temperatures between Ӏ15 and Ӏ20C, and will have a positive charge if between Ӏ5 and -10c ircC. In this way the same mechanism is able to explain the differentiation of the charge poles within the cloud, especially with regards to the core and the melting layer of the cloud itself. Due to the complexity of the phenomenon, at the current state of knowledge there is no theory capable of quantitatively explaining this mechanism. The complexities arise from the very variable nature of rimed crystals, for which the mechanism appears to be very efficient, in addition to the fact that it is necessary to know parameters that are difficult to estimate in thunderclouds such as impact velocity, impact angle and difference in temperature that flows between the two colliding particles. In the absence of quantitative data, it is not possible to know whether and how efficiently the contact potential influences the actual charging of a cloud. The only thing we are certain about is that this mechanism, thanks to the laws that regulate electrostatics, exists.
Workman-Reynolds effect. When droplets of superfused water are caught by falling ice crystals, they freeze on the surface of the crystal. Icing can be instantaneous or not depending on the temperature of the cloud region in which the collision occurs and that of the particles involved. During the freezing process, a potential difference is created between the crystal and the freezing water, called the ice/water interface potential, which is a function of the type and quantity of ions in solution and the freezing rate. The interface potential was first measured by Workman and Reynolds (1950), from whom the mechanism took its name.Workman-Reynolds effect.They suggested that there could be charge separation resulting from the detachment of liquid water droplets following the collision between crystal and droplet. This potential was then measured as a function of time in the laboratory by Caranti and Illingworth (1983), with disappointing results. The mechanism already in these terms involves a very small charge separation. Furthermore, the interface potential is strongly influenced by the ions in solution, which makes the mechanism even more inefficient. In conclusion, the Workman-Reynolds effect is not able to explain the charge separation recorded in a thunderstorm.
Breakup.During growth mechanisms, ice crystals can take on various shapes. The more fragile ones are characterized by tips that develop from the central body of the crystal towards the outside. The most common crystals from this point of view are dendrites. The protuberances are very fragile as they are generally thin and are easily subject to breakup, as a result of collisions with other particles or due to the hydrodynamic forces that keep the crystal in suspension. In any case, in conjunction with a breakup process, there is very often a separation of charge which usually leaves the central body of the crystal negatively charged and the tips positively charged. This mechanism alone is insufficient to account for observed charge separations. Mason (1971) therefore proposed a collaboration between breakup and the thermoelectric effect. In fact, he assumed that the ice crystal was at a fixed temperature, while what surrounded it was at room temperature. This way he had the right conditions to develop a surface temperature difference every time the ice crystal collided with another cloud particle. Other details can be read from the original article available online.
Splintering during the Hallett-Mossop trial. Ice crystal splintering has attracted great interest in the recent past as a possible cause of charge separation. Latham and Mason (1961) noted that ice fragments created during the freezing of superfused water droplets on a large ice surface, thus during riming processes, are charged. They estimated that for small droplets, 20 to 90 m in diameter, impacting on ice spheres 5 mm in diameter, positively charged icy fragments are ejected leaving the crystal negatively charged. Qualitatively this mechanism respects the polarity of storm clouds but quantitatively it is not able to justify the necessary charge separation on its own. More in-depth studies regarding this process were that the ice fragments created during the freezing of superfused water drops on a large frozen surface, therefore during the riming processes, are charged. They estimated that for small droplets, 20 90µm in diameter, which impact on ice spheres of 5mm in diameter, positively charged frozen fragments are emitted leaving the crystal negatively charged. Qualitatively this mechanism respects the polarity of storm clouds but quantitatively it is not able to justify the necessary charge separation on its own. More in-depth studies on this process were conducted by Hallett and Saunders (1979) exploiting the Hallett-Mossop process developed 5 years earlier. The Hallett-Mossop process is an important source of cloud particles, especially in regions where the temperature is between -3C and -8C. The mechanism involves the accretion of superfused water droplets by hydrometeors in in which the ice phase is predominant, be they crystals, graupel or hailstones. The superfused water instantly freezes on the frozen surface. If conditions are favorable, the aggregate can break into multiple fragments or can emit droplets in liquid form that instantly freeze in the external environment. The fragments will grow rapidly by diffusion in a vapor-rich environment until new crystals form which begin the cycle again. Large quantities of ice crystals are formed in the net.
Hallett and Saunders, as previously mentioned, exploited this effect to search for a cloud loading mechanism. They found that the ice fragments are electrically charged. In the growth phase the ice crystal becomes positively charged while in the sublimation phase it is negatively charged, in agreement with what was seen in the electrification process involving the contact potential. The authors concluded that the charge sign was a direct consequence of the physical state of the crystal surface and the vapor pressure in relation to that of the vapor contained in the cloud region in which the crystal is located. The mechanism described is insufficient to explain the charge separation of a thunderstorm because the charge on the fragments is too small and growth by diffusion does not create a sufficient accumulation of charge.
Melting layer. Although ice crystals have, in most cases, a negatively charged main body, measurements performed on drops precipitating outside the cloud reveal a predominance of positive charges on the drops. Dinger and Gunn (1946) proposed a loading system involving the melting layer. They showed that ice crystals containing air bubbles, such as hail or graupel, acquire a positive charge when melting. Drake (1968) demonstrated that charging is due to the expulsion of negative charges from the crystal due to the explosion of air bubbles that come into contact with the external environment during the ice melting processes taking place in the melting layer. The loading is a function of the radius of the air bubbles, the ice content of the bubbles and the ion content present in the melt. The mechanism foresees that the bubbles in contact with the cloud air interact with it, leaving the body of the crystal charged. The positive charge on the crystal can explain the lower layer of the cloud, but the mechanism is completely local and does not in the slightest relate to the electrical structure of the upper levels.
3.3.4 Crystal/graupel interaction. A separate paragraph is entirely dedicated to the non-inductive mechanism involving the interaction between a large graupel particle and small ice crystals in an environment rich in superfused water, as shown in figure 3.8. A graupel is nothing more than an ice crystal that has grown through interaction with superfused water, which, coming into contact with the crystal, freezes the instant it spreads on its surface. The conditions shown in Figure 3.8 are extremely common in thunderclouds, even at different altitudes. In fact, graupels are very common particles in clouds of this type, especially at medium latitudes, so it is logical to expect that they are involved in a rather profitable
electrification mechanism. The first studies in this regard date back to 1978 and research relating to the Hallett-Mossop trial. It was known ever since that the charge found on the ice fragments, the result of the process described above, was insufficient to guarantee the required electrification. However, a gradually increasing charge transport was observed as the ice fragment increased in diameter. Furthermore, a prevalence of positive surface charges was observed on the new rimed crystal, contrary to what was shown by Reynolds et al. (1957) who used the prevalence of negative charges on crystals of this type to explain part of the electrical structure of the cloud. It was Jayaratne (1983) who resolved any doubts in this regard by showing that the sign of charge can be positive or negative depending on the temperature and the liquid water content, as shown in figure 3.9.
Fig. 3.8
Fig. 3.9
This curve is the result of an experiment that shows how the charge sign of the graupel is reversed at a certain altitude, considering a liquid water content that is the same for all cases analyzed. The different sign assumed by the graupels as a function of temperature can justify the electrical structure of the cloud. In fact, the dissolution of the graupel that occurs in melting completes the tripole. The negative charge contained in the air bubbles or fragments that detach from the graupel are pushed back into the negative charge center by hydrodynamic forces, strengthening the tripole. In this way the electric fields necessary to form a discharge can be achieved.
Many observations have been made in the past years and have led to important results. In particular, a series of in situ measurements carried out via aircraft penetrations in some thunderstorms in Montana led Dye et al. (1986) to interesting conclusions. In fact, they noticed an increase in the intensity of the electric field in regions where ice particles and superfused water are present. In the same region, large quantities of rimed and graupel crystals were identified using laser measuring devices. These measurements led the scientific community to become increasingly convinced that the collisions between ice crystals and graupel in the presence of superfused water are the mechanism that, more than any other, leads to the formation of the observed electric fields and the production of lightning.
The loading mechanism. Every mechanism based on vapor deposition on the surface of a crystal must satisfy a law that Baker et el. (1987) formulated and demonstrated. This suggests that when two icy surfaces, having a different diffusion growth rate, come into contact, the relative growth rate must be evaluated. In fact, it has been demonstrated that for crystal/graupel, or more generally crystal/crystal, collision processes, the surface of the particle that has the highest diffusion rate becomes positively charged following the collision. This result is in agreement with multiple laboratory experiments and is still considered valid today.
The theory was developed by Dash et al. (2001) and concerns two generic ice crystals. The surface of the crystal with the higher growth rate has a greater amount of negative surface charge available to be separated, and therefore remains positively charged. According to the theory, a large rate leads to rapid, but not homogeneous, growth at high charge densities. The vapor that diffuses on the surface of the crystal is made up of H+ and OH- ions in equal quantities. However, while the OH- ions are held in place on the surface of the crystal by hydrogen bonding, the H+ ions are free to leave the surface, moving towards the center of the crystal.In this way a negative surface potential is created, while the total net charge of the crystal remains zero. Two particles that collide tend to balance the potential difference between their surfaces; in this way the particle with the higher rate will transfer negative charges to the other. Ultimately the particle with the higher rate remains positively charged while the other will be negatively charged. The passage of charges becomes more efficient the greater the quantity of superfused water present on the surfaces at the moment of contact. In fact, the exchange of mass, and therefore of the charge contained in it, is much more efficient if the contact surface is superfused and not frozen. During the collision between two crystals, the contact surfaces undergo an instantaneous melting process which favors exchanges. However, the presence of large quantities of superfused water in the cloud environment in which the collision occurs guarantees the permanence on the surface of the two crystals of a veil of water in liquid form which facilitates the passage of charge and mass. Net mass transfer occurs in the opposite direction to charge transfer (Mason and Dash, 2000). Obviously the mass in question is nothing more than superfused water present on the surface of the crystals in which the charges are dissolved. The transfer of the latter is thus enormously facilitated. For this reason the described mechanism presents a great efficiency in the separation of the charge in the cloud. From a purely theoretical point of view the picture is complete. We now need to understand what the most efficient interaction possible is experimentally. Numerous laboratory studies and cloud observations indicate the collision process between ice crystal and graupel as the most efficient mechanism in charge separation. By retracing the various steps that define the theory, it is possible to justify the experimental evidence. In fact, the graupel, given its microscopic structure, has a lower diffusion growth rate than the ice crystal. On the contrary, the grupel will have a greater amount of surface mass in the form of superfused water than the crystal. Assuming a falling graupel at terminal velocity and an ascending crystal due to hydrodynamic transport, we have the scenario represented in figure 3.10. So while the flow of charge is from the ice crystal to the graupel the flow of mass follows the opposite direction. The negative charge flows from the surface of the crystal to that of the graupel, leaving the ice crystal positively charged, according to theory.
The mechanism just described is, as mentioned, considered the main candidate to explain the electrical structure found in thunderclouds. However, if qualitatively satisfactory results are obtained, it is difficult to obtain quantitative confirmations even from instrumental apparatus aimed at reproducing the phenomenon in the laboratory. In fact, the large amount of variables at play, combined with the chaotic nature of the atmospheric system itself, make any representation in the laboratory difficult, be it in the form of a numerical model or scale reproduction of the actual phenomenon. Therefore the results will always be in a probabilistic and never deterministic form, always leaving several uncertainties regarding the definition of the process that best jurisprudence the electrical structure in the cloud.
Chapter 4
Discharge processes. Discharge processes are generated from storm clouds whose internal electric fields are sufficiently intense. The dynamics that lead to electrical discharges are not yet completely clear, which makes the problem in question extremely current. In fact, there are inconsistencies between theory, observations and what the dynamics at play are believed to be. The biggest inconsistency concerns the intensity of the electric field. In the cloud, fields of the order of 105Vm–1until an instant before the discharge. The problem arises when considering discharges that must exit the cloud environment. In fact, in order to occur they must first produce an ionization channel. For this to happen, an electric field is required that exceeds the dielectric strength value of the air, i.e. the intensity of a field necessary to initiate ionization between two electrodes in dry air at standard temperature and pressure, which is Es = 7 107V m–1., two orders of magnitude more than the cloud electric field. In section 3. 3 we tried to give an explanation, starting from the assumption that the electric field in the cloud can grow quickly thanks to the radius of curvature of the larger hydrometeors. All the possible candidates for achieving this field value were analyzed there, but a definitive conclusion has not yet been reached. This chapter will cover both lightning and transient luminous events. In the following paragraphs we will start from the assumption that both these phenomena take place in thunderclouds, whose electrical structure was described in the previous chapter.
4.1 Lightning. The strong cloud electric fields caused by the spatial distribution of the charge within the cloud itself are responsible for the formation of the discharge processes. The best known, despite the aura of uncertainty that still surrounds these phenomena, are lightning. These are flows of charges between two conductive surfaces (for example cloud and ground) placed at a certain potential difference and communicated through a medium, generally a dielectric. Therefore, an electric field capable of generating the breakdown of the dielectric is required. When the dielectric in question is the air outside the cloud, the value of the cloud electric field is not sufficient. Measurements taken a few moments before a discharge reveal electric fields whose intensity is two orders of magnitude lower than the dielectric strength value of air. As already mentioned in chapter 3, the occurrence of electrical discharges must be justified by some phenomenon inside or adjacent to the cloud. There seem to be two of these phenomena, even if there is no solid theoretical basis to support them; this is the curvature of large hydrometeors or the reduction of the resistivity of the air. As regards the first of the two, it would seem that, in the presence of large quantities of large drops, an electric field of 1% compared to the dielectric strength value of the air is sufficient to start the discharge process. This value would be completely in agreement with the data observed in the cloud. If this theory were verified by experimental data collected from different storms, it could actually place certainties at the basis of the discharge phenomena. The reduction in the resistivity of the air, however, can be due to various factors, not correlated with what actually happens in the cloud, such as density, temperature, humidity, the chemical composition of the air and the content of free ions. In any case, when one of the two events occurs (more likely the first than the second) the discharge processes begin. Most lightning strikes originate in the negatively charged cloud region and carry negative charge. However, lightning carrying a positive charge exists, although much more infrequent than negative lightning. Furthermore, the discharges that occur in the troposphere can be classified based on the conductive surfaces they connect. We will therefore have three categories: Fig.4.1
1. Cloud to Ground ashes (CTG); this is probably the most common stereotype of lightning in the social imagination (a flash that pierces the darkness and falls to the ground after starting from the cloud). The sequence of formation and evolution of the phenomenon, despite its brevity, is very complex (as well as the only one known with a certain accuracy) and will be described in a separate section.
2. Intra Cloud ashes (IC); these are discharges that occur within the same cloud, generally between the two main centers of positive and negative charge, although it is not uncommon to have lightning strikes that also involve other regions of the cloud. Since the greatest potential differences are found between the centers of charge located inside the thunderstorm itself and since the dielectric constant inside the clouds is lower than that of the outside air, most lightning strikes are of this type. This fact intensifies in summer thunderstorms and over arid areas where the cloud base is low. Due to the volume of the cloud surrounding IC discharges, not much is known about the structure of these events. They are often subject to spread in the region they impact; the light emitted is attenuated by the body of the cloud and emerges from it in the form of a glow. In these particular cases they are also called sheet lightnings.
3. Inter Cloud o Cloud to Cloud ashes (CTC); these are discharges that occur between two adjacent but not adjacent clouds. They come when the electric field in the clouds is strong enough to initiate a breakdown sequence. It is believed that the discharge sequence is completely similar to that of CTG lightning. They are much rarer than the other two types of discharge.
In addition to these three categories, there are other types of discharges, such as those that propagate from the cloud towards the ionosphere which will be discussed in section 4:2. However, there are lightning processes related to other atmospheric phenomena such as volcanic eruptions and sandstorms. In fact, volcanic plumes produce large disturbances in the atmospheric potential gradient at the surface. Furthermore, high charge densities have been measured in volcanic ash which can alter charge concentrations in the atmosphere. The complex composition of the plumes, which among the different components also includes gas, solid particles and hydrometeors, includes some electrical charging mechanisms. For plumes rich in silicates, in the form of solid particles, the predominant mechanism involves the emission of ions and atomic particles during the fracture events of the magma that comes out explosively from the volcanic cone. In the plumes that form following contact between lava and sea water, the most active loading mechanism is linked to the boiling processes of the water itself due to the high temperatures of the lava. Depending on the charge separation mechanism and the intensity with which it acts, different discharge processes occur, with even very high frequencies within the same plume complex if the volcanic eruption is particularly intense. Electrical phenomena also occur in sandstorms. In fact, the charges are separated during the collision processes that occur between suspended sand particles or between them and the ground. If this mechanism, supported by experimental data, acquires such an efficiency as to separate large quantities of charge, it is possible that discharge processes may occur. The last two processes outlined3 arouse particular interest in the scientific community. In fact, it is probable that such phenomena, as well as thunderstorm discharges, occur not only on our planet but also on other planets with an atmosphere, but with greater frequency than lightning itself.
Frequency and distribution. Before dedicating ourselves to the description of the various steps that identify CTG discharges, a quick overview of the distribution and occurrence of lightning on the globe is proposed, to make the description in progress quantitative. In the last section of the first chapter we talked about global occurrences of lightning, considering that on average there is a frequency of 1500 thunderstorms per second. It is not reductive, therefore, to estimate an occurrence that varies between 100 and 300 discharges per second. Analyzing individual storms, a great local variability emerges in the relationships between the types of discharge seen previously. Nonetheless, making long-term statistics, we obtain that 70-80% of lightning strikes are IC (Boccippio et al. 2000, 2001). The remaining 20 30% is almost entirely represented by CTG discharges, of which 90% carry negative charge while only 10% carry positive charge (Poelman 2010). Since most lightning strikes originate in convective thunderstorms, the distribution of lightning strikes across the globe will be a function of convection. Most lightning occurs in the latitudinal band between the two tropics, mainly over continental masses and during the summer season.
4.1.1 Cloud to Ground ashes. To describe the processes that characterize CTG lightning, reference is made to a negative discharge, which is much more probable than a positive one, as illustrated in figure 4.2. The entire process can be minimized in terms of discharging to the ground a large amount of negative charge accumulated in the negative region of the cloud around 15C, once the conditions necessary for the discharge itself have been satisfied. In reality the mechanism is much more complicated and consists of several phases. When environmental conditions become favorable, the discharge process enters its first phase governed by the step leader. This phase is generally preceded by a preliminary or initial breakdown process that occurs within the cloud. In fact, a discharge occurs between the negative region of the cloud and the underlying positive one. The leader originates from this discharge. The stepped leader is made up of a network of luminous channels, although not very visible, which propagate in a zigzag (hence the term stepped) creating a series of bifurcations from the cloud to the ground. At the tip of each of the bifurcations there is an accumulation of ionized plasma material, which ionizes the matter it comes into contact with during its path. This process is represented in the first image of figure 4.2. The branches of the channels propagate in the directions most favorable to ionization, based on the properties of the medium crossed. For this reason it is not uncommon to see some branches propagate in the opposite direction compared to the general flow of the ramifications, which is, as mentioned, from the cloud to the ground. The branch that encounters least resistance to ionization manages to get close to the surface. all the ramifications created by the leader present an accumulation of negative charges, originating following the ionization of the air. Wunder and Whiteson (1996) estimated105ms-1 the speed of the stepped leader, while a charge deposit of105 – 30C along the route was supposed by Zemke (1992). As the stepped leader approaches the ground, it is often possible to notice a stepped leader, starting from the surface, joining the descending leader about ten meters above the ground. This flow is called a streamer and, in the case of a negative leader, is positively charged. From the conjunction between stepped leader and streamer the ionized channel is formed through which the charges accumulated in the cloud reach the ground (images 2 and 3 in figure 4.2).
Sometimes it is also possible to observe the streamer in the absence of the leader. In this case the development is completely similar to the branches of the leader which propagate in the atmosphere without reaching the ground. Streamer formation is favored when the ground has conductive spikes. In fact, the accumulation of charges that occurs on a tip favors the mutual attraction between these and the charges present in the stepped leader. When the electrical attraction becomes predominant over the dielectric strength of the medium, the streamer forms and joins the leader. This process explains why lightning is more likely to fall on spikes than on flat ground. Sometimes it is also possible to observe the streamer in the absence of the leader. In this case the development is completely similar to the branches of the leader which propagate in the atmosphere without reaching the ground. Streamer formation is favored when the ground has conductive spikes. In fact, the accumulation of charges that occurs on a tip favors the mutual attraction between these and the charges present in the stepped leader. When the electrical attraction becomes predominant over the dielectric strength of the medium, the streamer forms and joins the leader. This process explains why lightning is more likely to fall on spikes than on flat ground. In reality, the high speed with which the return stroke passes through the channel, at least in the first milliseconds, hardly allows the interaction of the positive charges contained in the flow with the negative ones on the edges of the channel. This is because the speed at which the charges interact electrically is less than the speed of the flow. In this way part of the channel remains negatively charged. The positive charge carried by the flow is thus deposited in the region of the cloud where the leader originates. At the same time, the negative charges remaining on the edges of the channel will flow towards the ground. In this way the excess charge on the surface is removed. As regards a positive flash, the process is the same even if the sign of the charges is reversed, starting from that of the cloud region in which the leader originates (also of opposite sign). The speed at which the return stroke propagates is higher than that of the stepped leader. On average it is estimated to be between c=3 and c=2, where c is the speed of light (Rakov, 2007). The speed is maximum in the first meters of the atmosphere and decreases with altitude. The current carried by a typical return stroke has a maximum at around 30kA in the first few microseconds of life, and then decays very quickly due to the propagation of the current in all the branches opened by the leader (Rakov and Uman, 2003). The negative charge remaining in the channel is transported to the ground, although it results in very variable quantities. Nonetheless, anomalous current and charge values of 100kA and 350C respectively were recorded. The passage of the current suddenly heats the channel up to temperatures of 30; 000K and creates a pressure of 10atm or more (Rakov and Uman, 2003). In this way the channel expands and radiates a large amount of energy in the form of shock waves and light radiation. The first will be discussed in the final paragraph of this chapter.
The second is the explanation of the strong brightness typical of the return stroke. Following the passage of the return stroke, the ionized channel can close. In this case the mechanism concerning the single discharge is concluded and the lightning thus produced is called single-stroke flash. Very often, however, only the secondary branches close while the main channel remains open; it is then crossed by a second leader, called dart leader, as shown in the fifth image of figure 4.2. In the time interval between the end of the return stroke and the beginning of the dart leader, two processes occur, called J and K. The process called J concerns the formation of a small positive leader that propagates from the region in which the discharge mechanisms begin and the negatively charged cloud layer. The process called K involves the subsequent formation of a streamer in the negative region of the cloud, which attaches to the newly generated leader.The combination of the two processes gives an additional supply of negative charge that the dart leader will transport into the channel, but which will not necessarily be able to reach the ground. The dart leader propagates within the channel at an average speed of the order of 107ms–1, ignoring the presence of secondary branches. The total charge produced by the J and K processes, and deposited along the channel, amounts to approximately 1C. Some dart leaders can create new branches once they get close to the ground; they are commonly called dart stepped leaders. If, however, the dart leader immediately exits the pre-existing channel and forms another one, then it will constitute the initial process in the mechanism of producing a new discharge. Once the dart leader reaches the ground, a new return stroke goes up the channel, following the same path as the first flow (image 6 in figure 4.2). The life time of the first return stroke is greater than that of the second as the speed of the latter is higher. The current transported by the second return stroke, however, is lower than that of the first and can be estimated at 10 – 15kA. Often some discharge mechanisms are affected by more than two return strokes, spaced between each other by a dart leader. When this happens, the lightning feels like it is flashing. Net of the entire discharge mechanism, there is a passage of negative charge from the cloud to the ground and positive charge from the ground to the cloud.
Figure 4.2: Schematic of the various stages of development of a negative Cloud to Ground lightning
4.1.2 Lightning and climate. Lightning is a good indicator of the intensity of convection in the atmosphere. Convection is a phenomenon that occurs when a certain region of the atmosphere close to the surface becomes unstable due to the effect of solar radiation or the mixing of air masses of different densities. The greatest occurrences of lightning occur in the regions of the globe where instability reaches its maximum values. In fact, the regions of instability are not distributed randomly on the globe, but are organized in such a way as to follow the Earth’s climate, the main forcing of which is the differentiated heating of the Earth’s surface. A climate change can therefore be linked to a reorganization of the regions of greatest intensity of convection, thus producing a variation in the distribution of lightning across the globe.
To be able to have quantitative measurements relating to the climatic variation of the discharge activity, it is necessary to analyze the most influential quantities in the characterization of the distribution of lightning. In this sense, an important role is played by surface temperature. In fact, with the growing attention towards global warming, numerous studies have been carried out aimed at evaluating the correlation between the variation in atmospheric discharge activity with changes in surface temperature. Given the short duration of the single storm event, the correlation between the two quantities under consideration is sought on small time scales. Thanks to numerous studies that took place in the 90s and early 2000s, a positive correlation between temperature and lightning could be observed. most common results report an increase in discharge activity of 10 to 100% in correspondence with an increase in surface temperature of one degree.
The second interesting parameter is the content of water vapor in the atmosphere. As is widely known, water vapor is the main greenhouse gas and therefore an important factor in estimating the warming of a certain geographical area. Variations in vapor concentrations in the atmosphere therefore produce important climate changes. However, the climate is influenced differently depending on the altitude at which the peak increase in water vapor occurs. In particular, an increase in vapor in the regions of the upper troposphere, where its concentration is therefore very low, has a greater influence than would be the case with a variation near the ground. In two studies conducted in subsequent years, Price (2000) and Price and Asfur (2006), showed a tendency for thunderstorms to increase water vapor concentrations in regions of the upper troposphere above the thunderstorms themselves. Thus evaluating the increase in vapor concentrations in the upper troposphere and the discharge activity, a positive correlation between the two quantities is noted. Exploiting this correlation Sato and Fukunishi (2005) showed a again positive connection between lightning and cloud cover in tropical areas. Water vapor and cloud cover have a direct impact on the Earth’s radiation balance, therefore the study of variations in lightning activity is a good indicator of whether or not this balance is preserved. In conclusion, based on the results that emerged from recent modeling experiments, an increase in the number of lightning strikes per single storm was noted, in relation to the increase in the two parameters described (and many other parameters such as variations in trace gas concentrations which are secondary and therefore not covered here). The models therefore seem to lead to an extremization of the climate also from the point of view of thunderstorms and discharges. In fact, the results seem to lead to an intensification of storms. Consequently, the number of discharges per single event will also tend to increase.
4.1.3 CTG and global circuit. CTG lightning also becomes part of the global electrical circuit. In fact, they provide a method of removing the excess positive charge on the earth’s surface and a source of negative charges always in favor of the surface. This mechanism works as long as lightning carries negative charges to the surface. As seen previously, there are lightnings that carry positive charge, but they are very rare compared to negative ones, therefore the mechanism described is valid. Furthermore, despite the scarcity of quantitative data, the requirements, only estimated in chapter 2, regarding the average charge transport per lightning strike and the global occurrence of CTG lightning strikes per second appear to be met. The global lightning rate therefore guarantees a part of the balance to the transport of positive charge to the surface by the fair-weather conduction current. The other part of the circuit branch dedicated to the thunderstorm region is handled by the TLEs and will be described in section 4.2.
4.1.4 Thunder Thunder is a set of sound waves that are formed following the passage of charges inside the ionized channel and propagate in the atmosphere. Numerous studies consider thunder as the consequence of the heating caused by the passage of lightning which generates an expansion at supersonic speed of the molecular plasma contained in the ion channel. This process leads to the formation of a very intense sound wave, similar to an explosion, which propagates in the atmosphere until it dissipates. The burst is a consequence of collisions between the accelerated plasma particles colliding with the environment outside the ionization channel, which is in stationary conditions. The peak acoustic energy of thunder is generally centered around 200Hz. The roar that accompanies the explosion is caused by the reflection and scattering of the sound wave by clouds and rough surfaces, whether artificial such as cities or even just buildings, or topographical.
4.2 Transient luminous events. Transient luminous events (TLE) are phenomena of very recent discovery (1989, although they were theoretically predicted by Wilson in the 1920s), and constitute a set of electrical discharge events whose common factor is the direction of propagation: from the cloud towards the ‘exosphere. These phenomena allow us to discover that the stratosphere and mesosphere were also affected by electrical phenomena and not electrically quiescent atmospheric regions as initially believed. Due to the infrequency with which they occur, TLEs are very difficult to observe and even more so to understand.
Despite this they are classified into:
red sprite; these are large-scale electrical discharges that propagate from the top of a storm up to maximum heights of 80-90km. They are generated as a result of CTG lightning carrying positive charge. They are typically red or orange in color, although sprites ranging from green to blue have been observed. Given the large amount of energy transported and their poor predictability, they can be very dangerous for the vehicles involved in on-site data collection. Sometimes the sprite can be preceded by a halo, an optical phenomenon that consists of a luminous arc formed in the sky above the cloud due to the diffusion of light by the ice crystals.
blue jet ; these are discharges that propagate from the top of a storm up to 40-50km above sea level. Unlike sprites, they are not associated with other lightning processes. They are much brighter than sprites and, as the name suggests, they are blue. The color appears to be given by the blue and near ultraviolet emission of the neutral and ionized nitrogen molecules that make up the jets. Jets are more difficult to observe than sprites as they are not connected to other phenomena that can give advance warning. They also have a lower frequency than sprites, and the duration of a single jet is generally less than a second.
blue starters ; si tratta di fenomeni luminescenti in moto ascensionale molto simili ai blue jet. Sono in genere più corti, in quanto raggiungono appena i 20km in quota, e luminosi dei jet. Così come i jet, anche gli starters appaiono di colore blu ed hanno una durata inferiore al secondo.
gigantic jet ; si tratta di eventi molto rari, simili ai jet per fenomenologia, ma più intensi ed estesi. Infatti si sono osservati gigantic jet estendersi no ai 70km di altezza nel tempo caratteristico di apparizione di un blue jet. Le velocità dei gigantic jet sono simili alle velocità dei fulmini nei primi microsecondi di vita, ma aumentano col diminuire della densità dell’atmosfera. La velocità terminale è raggiunta nei pressi della ionosfera, luogo in cui il jet dà vita ad una cascata luminosa.
elves; si tratta di bagliori di forma circolare, dal diametro medio di 400km e della durata di un millisecondo. Si trovano in ionosfera, a quote attorno ai 100km, sopra i temporali. Sono tipicamente di colore rosso. Sono probabilmente conseguenza dell’interazione tra gli impulsi elettromagnetici propagati dai fulmini e dalla ionosfera (Inan et al. 1997). Non sembrano correlati con la polarità dei fulmini dai quali hanno origine.
Lyons et al. (2006) riuscirono a classificare in maniera qualitativa le occorrenze di osservazioni dei TLE in relazione alle dimensioni e alla temperatura del top delle nubi, e alla ricettività radar dello strato sottostante. Riuscirono a dedurre che questi fenomeni si manifestano raramente al di sopra dei MCS, durante la stagione estiva, quando la temperatura delle nubi è maggiore di 55C. Sebbene molti TLE si manifestino in corrispondenza di picchi di riflettività radar superiore ai 55dBZ, non è raro trovarne anche a riflettività inferiori sopra regioni stratiformi che coprono aree superiori ai 20, 000km2. Sulla base di queste osservazioni, sono stati formulati dei criteri per valutare la probabilità di manifestazione dei TLE, che vengono utilizzati nei modelli di previsione meteorologica. Questi criteri permettono in primo luogo di classificare i sistemi nuvolosi in base alla frequenza di manifestazione dei TLE, come mostrato in figura 4.4. Tutti i sistemi temporaleschi sono potenzialmente adatti a produrre TLE, ma solo alcuni hanno un’efficienza elevata. Ad esempio si può osservare, sempre dalla gura 4.4, come le regioni temporalesche che maggiormente producono scariche CTG positive con grandi valori di ∆Mq5 sono quelle stratiformi all’interno dei MCS.
4.2.1 Sprite. Among the events just listed, those that are most observed in the atmosphere are sprites, as, although it is very low, they still have a higher frequency of occurrence than the others. They can be traced back to strong variations of a measurable quantity in an electrical system, i.e. the variation of the charge moment Mq. The quantity in question is obtained from monitoring regarding CTG lightning collected over a region of a certain amplitude, exploiting the Schumann resonance, and can be represented by the following mathematical expression
∆Mq(t) = Zq Q(t) (4.1)
where Q(t) is the amount of charge transported to the ground from an average height Zq. The data collected allow us to average the quantity under consideration, which guarantees the detection of the presence of sprites, as they are the closest relatives of lightning. In fact, some scholars believe that the sprites are generated starting from the return stroke of CTG lightning carrying positive charge, as if they were an extension of them. In any case, when values of ∆Mq 100Ckm are reached, there is a rapid increase in the probability of observing sprite production. In particular, when ∆Mq 300Ckm. you have a greater than 75% to 80% chance of observing a sprite. Curiously, sprites were only rarely observed in conjunction with a negative value of the variation of the charge moment, coinciding with negative CTG discharges. This anomaly can be justified by the fact that the current flowing into the negative discharges has a small amperage compared to what was measured for the positive discharges and compared to what is necessary to start the breakdown sequence for the sprite. Maximum values of ∆Mq estimated for the sprite to manifest are of the order of 500Ckm
Figure 4.4: Frequency of TLE observations in correspondence with the main cloud systems from which they originate
4.2.2 Blue jet. If sprites are the most studied and known events among the TLEs, jets were the first to be observed and classified. In fact, blue starters and gigantic jets are also part of the blue jet family, as they are different forms, in terms of vertical extension and intensity, of the same phenomenon. The jets therefore represent the first evidence of the possibility of having electrical events in the stratosphere and mesosphere. However, the nature of these events is not yet fully understood. An initial theory was formulated separately and simultaneously by Roussel-Dupré and Gurevich, Pasko, and Sukhorukov (1996). In fact, they considered that the mechanism by which the discharges took place was the same, whether it was lightning in the strict sense or jet. To correlate theory and measurements, however, the presence of extreme conditions is necessary, not reached in the storms above which the jets were observed. Sukhorukov and Stubbe (1998) and Petrov and Petrova (1999) suggested that the formation of the jet was due to the stream produced at the level of a leader’s crown. This latter theory was subsequently refined by Pasko and George (2002) who tried to justify it through a three-dimensional numerical simulation. In fact, in their publication cited above, they reported this consideration regarding the formation of blue jets and blue starters:
Blue jets and blue starters are considered as positive streamer coronas expanding from the streamer zones of conventional lightning leaders under conditions when large-scale electric elds nearthe thundercloud tops exceed the minimum eld required for the propagation of positive streamers in air.
However, it would appear that this theory should be discarded, as unrealistic CTG lightning charge transport is required to have sufficiently large values of flux. Raizer et al. (2006; 2007) further modified the theory of their predecessors by proposing the bidirectionality of the leader within the anvils as the cause of the formation of the jets. In fact, the leader oriented towards the ionosphere allows an ion channel to be opened in this direction too. The presence of strong electric fields also guarantees the acceleration of the charges, which reach energies at which the characteristic blue light of these events is emitted. At present the latest proposed mechanism seems the most truthful, even if there are still few certainties about it.
Thanks to the data collected by Yair et al. (2004), Blanc et al. (2004) and Cummer et al. (2006) respectively from the space shuttle, the International Space Station and satellite monitoring (FORMOSAT), the global rate of TLE can be estimated, albeit in a very qualitative way, in a few discharges per minute. Therefore, on a qualitative level, TLEs can be inserted within the global circuit to justify the passage of charge from the top of the storm clouds to the ionosphere. Based on recently disclosed reports, it would seem that at least part of the scientific community is moving in this direction. In fact, although with lower occurrences, compared to CTG discharges which transport charges by keeping the global circuit under the cloud active, TLEs transport a much greater quantity of charge than lightning. The difficulties involved in measuring TLE make the treatment very qualitative. Nonetheless, the increasingly continuous observations and the tendency to investigate these phenomena more seem to agree with the position that TLEs have carved out for themselves within the global circuit .
4. Why do I believe COPs represent environmental and energy scientific hypocrisy?
https://WWW.SPAWHE.eu is the acronym for “Synergic Plants, Artificial Welling, Hidroelectromagnetic Energy”. This website is an open book with illustrative technical drawings accessible to all, without paying any access fee. In essence, I assert that on planet Earth, we have developed good technologies, but we have made mistakes in the most important ones, which would have allowed us to extract clean energy directly from the environment, in fixed and mobile anthropic plants. In particular, the natural, chemical, physical and biological interactive principles, partially identified by scientists of the generations preceding the industrial one, such as Torricelli, Newton, Pascal, Henry, Dalton, Venturi, have been neglected. These principles, which the undersigned, without economic means, has tried in vain to reevaluate, could have easily dialogued with the electromagnetic inventions of Ferraris, Tesla, Maxwell, Lorentz, to extract clean energy directly from the environment without any extraction from the subsoil, industrial transformation, distribution to energy use points. So, we could say that most energy inventions have been wrong as they have produced more harm than good to the environment, apart from electricity. Which, however, to be truly useful to the environment, would have to be produced and used directly on the site where it is produced or on the means of transport that produces it internally, transmitting to the outside only the physical force necessary for moving or carry out agricultural and construction work, without interfering with global terrestrial energy illustrated very well in the previous chapter, not with the words of the undersigned, but with those of the speakers from the University of Bologna in the academic year 2012 – 2013. The same thing it can also be said for the much shorter research article published in the previous pages (https://skepticalscience.com/translation.php?a=19&l=17), also extracted from the internet. These two articles, although not updated with current data, demonstrate that water vapor and the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere influence each other and their increase in the atmosphere is caused by plants designed by men. If we consider that the percentage of CO2 in the atmosphere before the industrial era was 278 ppm and today it is 420 ppm, we can deduce that the volume of vapor in the atmosphere has also increased in even greater proportions, since, in addition to the fixed and mobile heating systems, there are also nuclear power plants, which do not emit CO2, but immense quantities of steam.
We all know that the CO2 molecule is non-polar and therefore does not break down due to electrostatic effects, but only through inorganic chemistry, which practically does not exist in the atmosphere. Therefore, the real cause of storms and water bombs are due to the water molecules contained in the atmospheric air, which polarize into H+ and OH- ions, even if they appear in the clouds as drops of water or ice, these retain a density much higher than atmospheric gases (just think that the density of water at room temperature is 830 times higher than air). We know that the fluid dynamic force is given by the product of
pressure exerted by the energy source due to the density of the energy carrier, therefore the force that produces damage on planet Earth is proportional to the quantity of water contained in the volume of air that moves by means of global terrestrial electrical energy, which is an immense phenomenon electrostatic which, as written in the aforementioned article, produces approximately 1500 on Earth
lightning strikes per second, with current values varying from 10 to over 200 KA.
These natural phenomena, which have increased due to the immense quantity of steam produced by human inventions, cannot be fought by allocating billions of dollars or euros to repair the damage, but above all by changing the way of designing the systems of the future scientifically and technologically. I don’t understand the reasons why the entire world of science hasn’t reached the same conclusion as me. That is, that it is necessary to cold extract electrical energy from the terrestrial environment. But above all, producing it on site, where it is needed, at the time it is needed, in fixed and mobile systems, at the desired voltage, frequency and current intensity, without the current transport of electricity on pylons, exposed needlessly to the atmospheric environment. Above all, we must ask ourselves why electricity production plants are still thermal and nuclear, and require raising the voltage up to 380,000 V (380 kV) for transport, and then distributing it through transformation substations to networks with voltages lower and to voltage reduction cabins for industrial or domestic use. A large part of the energy transport, especially in high voltage, takes place on pylons in direct contact with the Earth’s atmosphere, which alone produces lightning and flashes due to the natural electrical fields of the Earth which, as written in the article of the degree thesis of the Professor Francesco Barbano of the year 2012 – 2013 can reach the aforementioned high current values, which fortunately last a few moments, but on dry land, equally produce immense damage.
The years 2012 – 2013 were also important years for the undersigned, as I had concluded my inventions on fossil energy cleaning and filed five international patents, one of which was European, on domestic water saving and preparation for sewage purification and four on global purification which also included the cleaning of fossil energy. Not finding public or private interlocutors, I personally witnessed the power of global scientific hypocrisy. Therefore I had decided to end my activity as an inventor with these failures. Suddenly, I had the first intuitions regarding the extraction of clean, cold energy directly from the environment. It was no coincidence that in 2014 I created my website https://www.spawhe.eu, also transforming myself into a polemical writer towards current world institutions, including scientific, environmental, energy and property institutions. industry of inventions, which directly involve the United Nations, which organizes COPs (Conferences Of Parties), which do not reward intellectual inventions but only industrial ones, of those who can afford to pay patent filing and maintenance fees for years , which obviously completely exclude those who are not linked to public and private centers of power, not being able to access funding and experimental laboratories. We must not forget that the main key to extracting cold energy from the environment in fixed and mobile systems is the pump with the double separate power supply up to the impeller, registered in 2015, which is also an international patent deposit, now expired , like my other patents because I didn’t pay the maintenance fees. The current ignoble trade in patents from public inventors towards multinationals also collapses, which has prevented the understanding of my previous inventions and also subsequent ones which include the extraction of clean energy directly from the environment, which like the previous ones, is aging with zero funding. This is where the title of COP 28 comes from. It is not enough for science to agree that steam is also a very powerful tool for global warming, if it does not agree with the inventions that would have allowed energy to be coldly extracted from the environment, as the undersigned did, in 2014, simply by reversing submerged pumps in reservoirs to make them pump in the direction of gravitational force and placing turbines connected to power generators underneath them. It doesn’t take long to understand, without complex mathematical calculations, that the energy absorbed by the pump motor is much lower than the energy produced by the power generator. It doesn’t take long to understand that this solution, in addition to producing energy extracted from the environment, by transferring the oxygen contained in surface waters to the seabed would have made it possible to purify the stagnant water of artificial natural water basins for free, creating free artificial welling which to purify it could also favor the production of fish. Yet, I am not aware that this practice has ever been implemented on a global level in 2023. Isn’t this a bitter observation of global scientific hypocrisy? We should not be surprised if science has remained completely indifferent to the 2015 invention of the undersigned who finds in the pump with the dual separate power supply up to the impeller the key to extracting clean energy from the environment even in mobile systems. This pump, not having found interlocutors in the Italian ruling class, the undersigned, in 2016, transformed it into an international patent, even if after the disappointment of the previous silenced international patents, I had no faith in any of the current public institutions linked to the protection of the intellectual property of inventions. Consequently, all my subsequent inventions that extract energy from the environment are virtual inventions, not recognized by the current legislative bureaucracy on intellectual property, which among other things is recognized for all authors of intellectual works, except inventors. Obviously, the problem only concerns private inventors, as inventors employed by public bodies and multinationals are protected by employment contracts which also establish the shares due to inventors in the event of the sale of patents or marketing of inventions produced directly by companies. .
Unfortunately, the problem of energy extracted cold from the terrestrial environment is a very old unsolved problem, as both the inventors of electricity at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century and the current ones did not think that in addition to producing electrical energy , it was and is equally important to identify the best primary source from which to extract electricity. For scientists of the past, including Albert Einstein, it was obvious that primary energy was thermal, and for current scientists it is the same thing, as they want to transform hydrogen into fuel, while, for myself, it is fluid dynamics at room temperature the ideal primary energy, through the exploitation of compressed atmospheric air and the energy carrier water, which are present all over the planet, at any altitude and latitude and at any time of day or night. I have never claimed industrial ownership of my inventions, which are linked to the development of this concept, because it would be immoral to own them, considering the importance they could have for world development.
The current powerful men of the Earth have not invested even a dollar to verify with a banal experiment the possibility of extracting energy from the environment for free. I didn’t do it personally just because I started being an inventor as a pensioner, with a limited life expectancy. I’m not interested in economic success but in promoting new ideas of interactive connections between various purifying energy inventions which until now now no one thought. If I had only concentrated on creating the pump with the dual separate power supply I would not have had time to think about subsequent inventions that could also take us into space without fuel and nuclear energy.
With the systems that I have proposed and described we can purify and produce energy without economic costs because on planet Earth everything is interactive at the natural terrestrial speed.
World science had to trust terrestrial nature more and search for the key to locally triggering interactive processes at a higher speed on terrestrial soil, in waters, and in the atmosphere. It is no coincidence that my website was born in 2014, with the acronym SPAWHE (Synergic Plants, Artificial Welling, Hydroelectromagnetic Energy). This acronym meant that I had finally identified this key after nine years of interactive inventions in purification treatments between water and air that science has never rationally put together to simultaneously clean combustion fumes and organic sewage in sewer systems and purifiers.In fact, I realized that if I turned the water circulation pumps upside down and made them work in the direction of the gravitational force, instead of consuming energy to lift the water, they could produce it by placing them in series with another pump or a connected turbine. to a power generator. In fact, in 2015, I invented the pump with separate double power supply up to the impeller which has the potential to trigger interactive purification and energy processes even in mobile systems. Today, without public and private world science having lifted a single finger in favor of triggering interactive processes, we have the intellectual potential to export terrestrial interactivity into space and travel there too without fuel and nuclear energy, simply by adding together the push of Newton and Lorentz, with immense economic advantages and above all for human health, as this energy, being breathable by men, will make it possible to pressurize the cockpits of astronauts and travelers to the same pressure we have on Earth without getting sick from osteoporosis and heart disorders. In fact, if it is true that we cannot produce a mini gravitational force in space for each spacecraft or spaceship or space container, we can at least start from Earth with these means of transport full of atmospheric air at atmospheric pressure and conserve this reserve by purifying it from C02 for the entire journey, integrating it by means of artificial chlorophyll photosynthesis with other air while producing hydroponic food plants since we cannot practice traditional agriculture in space. From my point of view, the space race should have been the litmus test of current world development. Instead, the race also started with wrong inventions, thermal and nuclear, which by not exploiting terrestrial interactive principles are not part of our DNA and are already destroying the planet in less than two hundred years of completely wrong industrial development, as far as the choice is concerned of the primary source of energy. While electricity is certainly the most important of the induced energies. However, this induced energy will never be able to take us into space if it is not completely separated from the heat sources which prevent the Newton and Lorentz thrust from being added together due to the obvious problems caused by the high temperatures, bulk and weight of the systems. cooling and purification systems and fuel tanks. But above all, due to the fact that nuclear thermal energies are consumed, are not breathable nor can they be drunk and eaten by men, while water and atmospheric air can be infinitely regenerated and also produce human food. Therefore, in the last two centuries the political, scientific and economic ruling class has completely gotten scientific and technological development wrong, both from an environmental and economic point of view and continues to make mistakes with the presumption of bringing this system into space without having any possibility of guaranteeing the survival of human beings also from a physiological point of view. Quite the opposite of the interactive energy of the undersigned which is not only breathable and drinkable by man, it could also extend human life with the energetically autonomous blood oxygenating artificial heart which is another invention of the undersigned, which would be nothing other than the miniaturization of two very small systems with pressurized autoclaves, mini turbine with power generator and recycling pump with double separate power supply up to the impeller. One would replace the right ventricle and one the left.
Current space science probably still hasn’t thought about how the environments in which astronauts’ families should live could be conceived, while the undersigned when he filed the patent29.07.2021 https://www.spawhe.eu/sistema-di-cattura-polveri-interstellari-e-impianti-ambientali-spaziali/, my European patent came to mind, which no one has ever financed. Which pleased Professor Luigi Caponetto, former president of Enea who invited me specifically to discuss it at their headquarters in Florence in 2009. Unfortunately, as I said in previous articles, Professor Caponetto was replaced as president of Enea and whoever replaced him as president The organization’s leadership was not interested in my solution. However, that project is still valid and especially in space anthropic systems it would be indispensable combined with the equally indispensable pressurization of the environments to atmospheric pressure and the circulation of air in the sense of the universal gravitational force, which could be reinforced with the invented dynamic fluid circulation of the signed after the invention of the pump with the double separate power supply up to the impeller which would allow us to use the toilets, the water taps and the toilet as we use them on earth by means of the depression that we can create on the toilet waste collection manifold and to the toilet discharge by means of a small blender mixer which would convey the sewage into the low pressure tank which feeds one of the two suction bowls of the pump with the separate double feed up to the impeller, which allows the insertion of used water and faeces blended in the recycling circuit of the pressurized water to be purified. As we know, today spaceships pee in special closed containers so that it can be recovered and recycled in a special plant. While feces are made in special plastic containers which are periodically dispersed into space. With my system, still looking for terrestrial financiers, we could also solve the problem of space toilets by producing organic fertilizer for the aforementioned space hydroponic crops. The figure below shows a space container with toilets, where by enlarging the figure you can see the insertion of the blender mixer or mixer fan.
Gli attuali centri di centri di potere terrestri sono schierati su fronti opposti ma usano le stesse fonti energetiche e le stesse armi di distruzione. Nessuno dei 196 stati sovrani ha speso un solo euro per verificare se è possibile estrarre gratis l’energia dall’ambiente e creare lavoro per tutti partendo proprio dalla demolizione degli impianti energetici sbagliati fissi e mobili e correggendo quelli depurativi. Non dobbiamo dimenticare che il sistema energetico basilare, proposto dal sottoscritto ha le potenzialità di essere miniaturizzato, per realizzare cuori artificiali che produrranno energia internamente al corpo umano ossigenando il sangue e di conseguenza, allungando la durata della vita umana. Potenzialmente, potremmo fare a meno di organi che oggi sono indispensabili per respirare e digerire. Nel futuro le persone anziane potranno nutrirsi con soluzioni fisiologiche, muovesi con arti artificiali, vedere con telecamere, parlare e ascoltare molte lingue con l’intelligenza artificiale. Tutti questi futuri vantaggi, oggi sono boicottati dalla scienza legata ai centri di potere, dagli imprenditori che hanno investito in tecnologie obsolete e dai governi che hanno consentito l’attuale commercio dei brevetti, che è senso unico, dal pubblico al privato. Pertanto, la scienza pubblica mondiale non svolge il ruolo imparziale che dovrebbe avere in favore dell’intero popolo mondiale. E’ questa l’unica ragione per la quale sono ancora solo a parlare di energia interattiva, dopo averla applicata dappertutto virtualmente negli impianti domestici, fognari, urbani, depuratori urbani, fluviali, marini, dissalatori, welling artificiale, distribuizione edrica ed energetica, trasporti terrestri marini sottomarini, aeronautici e spaziali. Concludo questo articolo riportando soltanto le figure degli articoli pubblicati in ordine cronologico nella filastrocca di SPAWHE.eu che rappresentano un virtuale avanzamento dello stato depurativo ed energetico che i governi mondiali e le Nazioni Unite non hanno mai voluto sperimentare. Anzi le hanno ostacolate a livello legislativo, pretendendo il pagamento di tasse sui brevetti concessi non finanziati da nessuno e rifiutando la concessione di brevetti con argomentazioni non scientificamente corrette, come l’accusa di moto perpetuo.
-Electro-hydraulic diagram of a water recovery and purification system for toilets with maxi boxes for a public place
Scheme of a wastewater calcium dosing system through toilets with maxi boxes to prevent the formation of hydrogen sulphide in the sewers.
Cooling capture chimney for fume
Synergistic global indoor thermoelectric purification and production plant
Longitudinal section of global indoor sewage treatment plant
Cross section of global indoor sewage treatment plant
Combined system of sedimentation, dehydration, chemical stabilization of sludge with calcium powders
Tanker for drainage with dehydration and chemical stabilization of sludge with calcium powders
Mobile sludge dehydration and stabilization system with calcium powders in draining bags
Cross section of linear vegetable production building with superimposed biological ponds, sedimentation tanks, CO2 consumption dehydrators and water alkalizers in limestone greenhouses
Scheme of a global urban purification plant with CO2 and smog capture and neutralization system
The drawing above extracted from the article https://www.spawhe.eu/world-governments-that-reject-the-extraction-of-clean-energy-from-the-environment-reject-a-perennial-scientific-windfall-from-the-sky/, schematically, shows how it could be possible to create submerged crossing tunnels, especially at the ends of individual navigable canals with small boats that are not disturbed in their navigation. The energy produced through the compressed hydro-electromagnetic current generators that can be created in the access compartments to the submerged tunnel and the submerged current generators can supply all the energy needed to power the street lighting of the lagoon city, power the compressors that power the diffusers of air, raise and lower the gates and raise and return to the sea the waters that manage to infiltrate through the seals of the bulkheads. Always with energy costs equal to zero as regards the extraction, refining, transport, purification processes of the energy produced. The only costs that the citizens of lagoon cities like Venice will bear will be those due to the wear and tear of the machines that will operate throughout the year to trigger the energy and purification processes which, as we know, cannot take place on their own. These processes, as described in the title of this article are an authentic scientific windfall fallen from heaven still misunderstood by the current scientific advisors of world governments. Other than the investment and management costs that are charged to the Italian people by the monster of Venice. (each lift cost 272 thousand euros, while in 2021-2022 the costs dropped to 211 thousand euros per lift, thanks above all to improvements in procedures: for example, in the past it took 60 minutes to raise the gates, while now it takes 30).
I have not filed this further environmental and energy solution as a patent because I don’t believe that the current world institutions are capable of implementing these innovations, otherwise they would have also included my other forty previous inventions on these topics, which are still waiting for some country to create them , although, legally, no one, public or private, owes anything to the inventor, who has not paid the maintenance fees on the granted patents and has not made legal oppositions on the non-granted patents. It is clear that there is something very serious, that is not right, in the entire world ruling class.
Conclusioni
The numerous figures reported in this article were extracted from the 109 previous articles reported on the website https://www.spawhe.eu which describe in detail an alternative development that has never occurred on planet Earth. So, one could infer that this website was created by the imagination of the writer, that would be me. It is instead based on physical, chemical, biological principles, existing technologies, put together by the undersigned differently in existing anthropic plants to favor and trigger the natural interactive processes that would gradually lead to global purification and the extraction of the energy source and the ideal energy carrier , already identified by nature, which are nothing other than compressible air and incompressible water, conserve respectively in the gaseous and liquid state (i.e. at normal terrestrial temperatures and pressures), so as to be able to interact both in purification and energy processes with lower costs and no unwanted side effect. Unfortunately, this global system, which consumes neither the energy source nor the energy carrier, which are automatically renewed at the end of the processes, created entirely with air in the gaseous state and water in the liquid state, has not been understood by the current consumer society, which with combustion and nuclear energy have produced immense quantities of CO2 and steam which, being greenhouse gases, have altered the entire Earth’s climate balance. Unfortunately, on planet Earth, we have created a ruling class that profits from the current energy and purification systems and also profits from the reconstruction works essential to repair the damage caused by the increasingly frequent storms, floods, droughts and fires throughout the world. Therefore, in the current consumer society, the few rich are becoming richer and the many poor are becoming poorer.
In the following article https://futurism.com/the-byte/scientists-warn-climate-collapse-2100 published in the journal BioScience, it says that a document warning that “life on planet Earth is under siege” as we continue to spiral ever faster towards environmental collapse has been co-signed by more than 15,000 scientists from 161 countries. I wonder what solutions these scientists propose other than the usual renewables which are worth nothing compared to interactive purification and energy systems. I believe I have practically demonstrated that planet Earth, unfortunately, is governed by power lobbies, not only political and economic but also scientific and academic, otherwise at least some of these inventions would have had to have been tested and we would know if they work or not. published in the journal BioScience, it says that a document warning that “life on planet Earth is under siege” as we continue to spiral ever faster towards environmental collapse has been co-signed by more than 15,000 scientists from 161 countries. I wonder what solutions these scientists propose other than the usual renewables which are worth nothing compared to interactive purification and energy systems. I believe I have practically demonstrated that planet Earth, unfortunately, is governed by power lobbies, not only political and economic but also scientific and academic, otherwise at least some of these inventions would have had to have been tested and we would know if they work or not. It was useless to explain to bureaucrats graduated from Italian and European universities that perpetual motion does not belong to my culture as an inventor as it is simply useless, not being able to consume or even produce energy. My inventions are based on a long experience acquired in the installation of industrial and environmental systems which are imperfect in terms of organizational work, since they do not sufficiently exploit the interactive principles existing in nature, due above all to the gravitational force and electromagnetism that terrestrial science has been able to invent, but not adequately exploit to extract clean primary energy at atmospheric temperature and pressure. My activity as an inventor has focused, above all, on the fluid dynamics of water and air and terrestrial electromagnetism which has nothing to do with current renewables which are in any case mono-disciplinary commercial energies that are not able to exploit the gravitational force and terrestrial electromagnetism to connect to universal electromagnetism, to the point of adding together the Newton and Lorentz force which can only be added cold in fixed and mobile systems. In fact, all my inventions are based on improving the contacts between water and air first at a purifying level and in subsequent inventions, on improving the force that water and air can produce together coupled with terrestrial electromagnetism, which is very different from the universal one, being developed with permanent magnets, coils of wires protected with insulating paints, certainly not suitable for nuclear and thermal energy. These considerations of mine, which strangely, on planet Earth, no one seems to have made, could allow us to extract energy from the environment for free in every corner of the Earth, in small and large, fixed and mobile, fuel-free anthropic plants, nuclear energy and inefficient and cumbersome renewables, as explained extensively in my inventions and articles published on https://www.spawhe.eu . These considerations of mine, which strangely, on planet Earth, no one seems to have made, could allow us to extract energy from the environment for free in every corner of the Earth, in small and large, fixed and mobile, fuel-free anthropic plants, nuclear energy and inefficient and cumbersome renewables, as explained extensively in my inventions and articles published on. The old multinationals have produced global warming, also losing out economically. The new ones are equally wrong as they do not have the strength and interactivity to act where needed, when needed, in a simple and economical way, without industrial transformations, marketing and transport of energy. It is a global shame that not a single euro has yet been spent on planet Earth to experiment with interactive purification and energy solutions. Personally, I, who have lived over fifty years of current industrial and environmental experiences, am very disappointed by all the world institutions, without exception. However, I believe that planet Earth should be governed scientifically, because only science cannot make mistakes, as long as everything is tested and verified practically through prototypes demonstrating the efficiency of the inventions before producing them in billions of specimens, as was done with the current inventions of multinationals. But also large public works such as dams which have produced more disasters than benefits.
You can’t accept anything sight unseen. This is why there are patents that describe to the relevant authorities how the invention will be created and how it works. But patents can have commercial production and public utility objectives. It is not difficult to identify the difference between commercial and public utility patents, yet, private inventors who deal with these types of problems are punished by legislators, to leave the field free to institutional inventors, who, as mentioned, by not paying filing fees and maintenance (paid by taxpayers), they only collaborate with multinationals, isolating inventors who try to do the work they should have done, without funding, laboratories and workshops to test interactive inventions, which are the only ones that could save the life of the planet, reduce the current gap between rich and poor, save many lives from climate disasters and even extend the human lifespan, because the human body also benefits from blood purification by means of an artificial heart that exploits the principles interactive. There needs to be a minimum level of coherence on the part of governments and the United Nations. Inventors dealing with environmental and social problems should not be required to pay fees in addition to the filing fee, which should be a symbolic fee. Even the United Nations should take on the burden of experimentation, in favor of all the countries of the world. This elementary logic does not exist in current government authorities and the United Nations. Peace is also and above all built with the right inventions in the right places. In fact, during climatic and seismic disasters, the first things that are missing are energy and clean water which would never be missing if water were the energy carrier and clean air and gravitational force were the primary source. of world energy, as the undersigned has proposed since 2015, while science itself, which makes useless appeals, has not said a word to ask for the experimentation of interactive inventions. My proposal published on 28. 02. 2020. to create a joint-stock company to make up for the errors, omissions and wasted opportunities by science and the world’s centers of power, up to now, has not raised even a single euro. https://www.spawhe.eu/a-global-stock-company-against-errors-omissions-and-opportunities-wasted-by-science-and-world-power-centers/. For all these reasons I affirm that COP 28 cannot be anything other than the usual conference on scientific hypocrisy, like the twenty-seven previous COPs
By pure coincidence? On 26.11.2023 at 8.25 pm I had just published this article on my website https://www.spawhe.eu, when I received a proposal to purchase my website. I will respond to this proposal, of which I will not communicate the sender, in the following way: I cannot sell my website as it is inextricably linked to my inventions which were designed in the interest of the planet and the entire world population, therefore my aforementioned proposal to create a company for experimental actions of new solutions not tested until now. Those who believe in these proposals have the opportunity to buy the greatest number of actions by demonstrating that they truly want peace and general development. As I wrote in this article and in previous articles, the current United Nations which manages COPs, the intellectual and industrial property of patents, have spectacularly failed in their task, allowing the production of global warming, the unequal distribution of world wealth. Probably, even wars and the massacre of civilians and children, which are completely unrelated to the current power games, which in any case are scientific ignorance, because science cannot be wrong if it experiments with all the solutions, before producing them on a large scale, as is still doing with current inventions totally or partially wrong.
Luigi Antonio Pezone
