Ionic Charge Emission Into Fog From a Remotely Piloted Aircraft

R. Giles Harrison; Keri A. Nicoll; Graeme J. Marlton; Douglas J. Tilley; Pejman Iravani

doi:10.1029/2022GL099827

Ionic Charge Emission Into Fog From a Remotely Piloted Aircraft

R. Giles Harrison, Keri A. Nicoll, Graeme J. Marlton, Douglas J. Tilley, Pejman Iravani

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

6 Citations (SciVal)

Abstract

Charge influences the properties of liquid droplets, such as evaporation rates, hydrodynamic stability, and sticking probabilities. Modifying droplet charge therefore provides a possible method of influencing fogs or clouds. An instrumented, remotely piloted aircraft has been equipped with positive and negative corona emitters to cause droplet charging. With the aircraft circling at 20 m altitude, effects of ion release were compared in clear air and natural fog. In clear air, the surface atmospheric electrical field changed whenever the emitters were activated, but without significant differences in the short-wave radiation as the aircraft passed over previously ionized air. In fog, radiation fluctuations showed a Gaussian distribution before either emitter operated or when both emitters were operating, but with different distributions during unipolar ion emission. Introducing unipolar ions led to a maximum change in fog reflectivity of ∼2%, about 25 s later.

Original language	English
Article number	e2022GL099827
Journal	Geophysical Research Letters
Volume	49
Issue number	19
Early online date	3 Sept 2022
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1029/2022GL099827
Publication status	Published - 16 Oct 2022

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This material is based on the work supported by the National Center of Meteorology, Abu Dhabi, UAE under the UAE Research Program for Rain Enhancement Science (UAEREP). KAN acknowledges a NERC Independent Research Fellowship (NE/L011514/1) and (NE/L011514/2). Stefan Chindea, Freddie Sherrat, David Cleaver, and Jonathan du Bois helped with the flights and associated permissions. We thank the landowner of Bottom Barn Farm. Analysis was undertaken using R (R core team, 2021 ).

Keywords

aerosol
charge
cloud
geoengineering
UAV
weather modification

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Geophysics
General Earth and Planetary Sciences

Access to Document

10.1029/2022GL099827Licence: CC BY

Cite this

@article{f851247b6dee4645b62032c5c5684af0,

title = "Ionic Charge Emission Into Fog From a Remotely Piloted Aircraft",

abstract = "Charge influences the properties of liquid droplets, such as evaporation rates, hydrodynamic stability, and sticking probabilities. Modifying droplet charge therefore provides a possible method of influencing fogs or clouds. An instrumented, remotely piloted aircraft has been equipped with positive and negative corona emitters to cause droplet charging. With the aircraft circling at 20 m altitude, effects of ion release were compared in clear air and natural fog. In clear air, the surface atmospheric electrical field changed whenever the emitters were activated, but without significant differences in the short-wave radiation as the aircraft passed over previously ionized air. In fog, radiation fluctuations showed a Gaussian distribution before either emitter operated or when both emitters were operating, but with different distributions during unipolar ion emission. Introducing unipolar ions led to a maximum change in fog reflectivity of ∼2%, about 25 s later.",

keywords = "aerosol, charge, cloud, geoengineering, UAV, weather modification",

author = "Harrison, {R. Giles} and Nicoll, {Keri A.} and Marlton, {Graeme J.} and Tilley, {Douglas J.} and Pejman Iravani",

note = "Funding Information: This material is based on the work supported by the National Center of Meteorology, Abu Dhabi, UAE under the UAE Research Program for Rain Enhancement Science (UAEREP). KAN acknowledges a NERC Independent Research Fellowship (NE/L011514/1) and (NE/L011514/2). Stefan Chindea, Freddie Sherrat, David Cleaver, and Jonathan du Bois helped with the flights and associated permissions. We thank the landowner of Bottom Barn Farm. Analysis was undertaken using R (R core team, 2021 ). ",

year = "2022",

month = oct,

day = "16",

doi = "10.1029/2022GL099827",

language = "English",

volume = "49",

journal = "Geophysical Research Letters",

issn = "0094-8276",

publisher = "Wiley-Blackwell",

number = "19",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Ionic Charge Emission Into Fog From a Remotely Piloted Aircraft

AU - Harrison, R. Giles

AU - Nicoll, Keri A.

AU - Marlton, Graeme J.

AU - Tilley, Douglas J.

AU - Iravani, Pejman

N1 - Funding Information: This material is based on the work supported by the National Center of Meteorology, Abu Dhabi, UAE under the UAE Research Program for Rain Enhancement Science (UAEREP). KAN acknowledges a NERC Independent Research Fellowship (NE/L011514/1) and (NE/L011514/2). Stefan Chindea, Freddie Sherrat, David Cleaver, and Jonathan du Bois helped with the flights and associated permissions. We thank the landowner of Bottom Barn Farm. Analysis was undertaken using R (R core team, 2021 ).

PY - 2022/10/16

Y1 - 2022/10/16

N2 - Charge influences the properties of liquid droplets, such as evaporation rates, hydrodynamic stability, and sticking probabilities. Modifying droplet charge therefore provides a possible method of influencing fogs or clouds. An instrumented, remotely piloted aircraft has been equipped with positive and negative corona emitters to cause droplet charging. With the aircraft circling at 20 m altitude, effects of ion release were compared in clear air and natural fog. In clear air, the surface atmospheric electrical field changed whenever the emitters were activated, but without significant differences in the short-wave radiation as the aircraft passed over previously ionized air. In fog, radiation fluctuations showed a Gaussian distribution before either emitter operated or when both emitters were operating, but with different distributions during unipolar ion emission. Introducing unipolar ions led to a maximum change in fog reflectivity of ∼2%, about 25 s later.

AB - Charge influences the properties of liquid droplets, such as evaporation rates, hydrodynamic stability, and sticking probabilities. Modifying droplet charge therefore provides a possible method of influencing fogs or clouds. An instrumented, remotely piloted aircraft has been equipped with positive and negative corona emitters to cause droplet charging. With the aircraft circling at 20 m altitude, effects of ion release were compared in clear air and natural fog. In clear air, the surface atmospheric electrical field changed whenever the emitters were activated, but without significant differences in the short-wave radiation as the aircraft passed over previously ionized air. In fog, radiation fluctuations showed a Gaussian distribution before either emitter operated or when both emitters were operating, but with different distributions during unipolar ion emission. Introducing unipolar ions led to a maximum change in fog reflectivity of ∼2%, about 25 s later.

KW - aerosol

KW - charge

KW - cloud

KW - geoengineering

KW - UAV

KW - weather modification

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85139615338&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1029/2022GL099827

DO - 10.1029/2022GL099827

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85139615338

SN - 0094-8276

VL - 49

JO - Geophysical Research Letters

JF - Geophysical Research Letters

IS - 19

M1 - e2022GL099827

ER -

Ionic Charge Emission Into Fog From a Remotely Piloted Aircraft

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Understanding Energetic Particle Effects on Atmospheric Processes

Cite this

Ionic Charge Emission Into Fog From a Remotely Piloted Aircraft

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Projects

Understanding Energetic Particle Effects on Atmospheric Processes

Cite this