Design of an Electrostatic Field Sensor for the Study of Air Ions and Thunderstorms

When measuring air ions in nature, it is useful to measure not only commonly used variables such as temperature, relative humidity, atmospheric pressure, but also less commonly monitored variables to characterize the environmental conditions that affect the concentration of light air ions. Among the most important are the concentration of airborne aerosols, the radioactivity of rocks and, last but not least, the strength of the Earth's electric field. This varies over time according to the current weather, and is strongly influenced by nearby storms. It is known from the literature that the concentration of light air ions increases significantly during a storm, and in this respect, it would be very valuable to have a simultaneous record of the concentration of light air ions and the near-surface electric field strength. The aim of this paper is to design a low power electrostatic field sensor with continuous recording and sufficient sensitivity, automatically selected according to the ambient conditions.