The participation of such diverse scientific and technical disciplines as meteorology, astronomy, atmospheric electricity, ionospheric and magnetospheric physics, electromagnetic wave propagation, and radio techniques in the research of atmospherics means that results are published in scientific papers widely spread throughout the literature. This Handbook collects the latest knowledge on atmospherics and presents it in two volumes. Each chapter is written by an expert in his or her field. Topics include the physics of thunderclouds, thunder, global atmospheric electric currents, biological...

Prior to the space age, meteorologists rarely paid particular attention to the height regions above the tropopause. What was known about the upper atmosphere above about 100 km came essentially from ionospheric and geomagnetic research. The region in between, presently known as the middle atmosphere, was almost terra incognita above the height reachable by balloons. It was space research that allowed for the first time direct access to middle and upper atmospheric heights. About 40 years ago, Sidney Chapman coined a new word 'aeronomy' to describe the study of these two height regions. When...

Dieses Buch verdankt seine Entstehung meiner mehrjahrigen Tatigkeit auf dem Gebiet der elektromagnetischen Wellenausbreitung in der Ionosphare. Seine Gestalt erhielt es durch Vorlesungen, die ich an der Technischen Universitat Berlin und an der Universitat Bonn gehalten habe. Naturgemass nehmen die Ergebnisse eigener Arbeiten einen verhaltnismassig breiten Raum ein. Jedoch habe ich mich bemuht, die Theorie der Ausbreitung langer Wellen im Rahmen des begrenzten Umfanges dieses Buches moglichst vollstandig darzustellen. Manche Dinge sind dabei gestreift oder sogar nur erwahnt worden. Das...

Prior to the space age, meteorologists rarely paid particular attention to the height regions above the tropopause. What was known about the upper atmosphere above about 100 km came essentially from ionospheric and geomagnetic research. The region in between, presently known as the middle atmosphere, was almost terra incognita above the height reachable by balloons. It was space research that allowed for the first time direct access to middle and upper atmospheric heights. About 40 years ago, Sidney Chapman coined a new word 'aeronomy' to describe the study of these two height regions. When...