ANGEO Annales Geophysicae ANGEO 1432-0576 Copernicus GmbH Göttingen, Germany 10.5194/angeo-28-779-2010 Decrease of the electric field penetration into the ionosphere due to low conductivity at the near ground atmospheric layer Ampferer M. 1 Denisenko V. V. 2 3 Hausleitner W. 4 Krauss S. 4 Stangl G. 4 5 Boudjada M. Y. 4 Biernat H. K. 1 4 6 Institute of Physics, Department of Geophysics, Astrophysics and Meteorology, Karl-Franzens-University Graz, Austria Institute of Computational Modelling, Russian Academy of Sciences, Siberian Branch, Krasnoyarsk, Russia Siberian Federal University, Krasnoyarsk, Russia Space Research Institute, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Graz, Austria Federal Office of Metrology and Surveying, Vienna, Austria Institute of Physics, Department of Theoretical Physics, Karl-Franzens-University Graz, Austria 16 03 2010 28 3 779 787 This is an open-access article ditributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. This article is available from http://www.ann-geophys.net/28/779/2010/angeo-28-779-2010.html The full text article is available as a PDF file from http://www.ann-geophys.net/28/779/2010/angeo-28-779-2010.pdf

It is well known that lithospheric electromagnetic emissions are generated before earthquakes occurrence. In our study, we consider the physical penetration mechanism of the electric field from the Earth's surface, through the atmosphere-ionosphere layers, and until its detection in space by satellites. A simplified approach is investigated using the electric conductivity equation, i.e., ∇ˆσ·∇Φ)=0 in the case of a vertical inclination of the geomagnetic field lines. Particular interest is given to the conductivity profile near the ground and the electric field distribution at the Earth's surface. Our results are discussed and compared to the models of Pulinets et al. (2003) and Denisenko et al. (2008). It is shown that the near ground atmospheric layer with low conductivity decreases the electric field penetration into the ionosphere. The model calculations have demonstrated that the electric field of lithospheric origin is too weak to be observed at satellite altitudes.

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