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Earth’s electric atmosphere

Earth’s atmosphere is electrically conducting and functions as a global electric circuit (GEC). Keri Nicoll describes the GEC, its discovery, what generates and controls it, and why it is important

The terms in bold link to topics in the AQA, Edexcel, OCR, WJEC and CCEA A-level specifications, as well as the IB, Pre-U and SQA exam specifications.

The size of the current in the global electric circuit is governed by the resistance of a column of atmosphere and by the potential difference across it. These parameters are related to resistivity, columnar resistance and potential gradient.

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