Abstracto

Atmospheric electrical conductivity near the ground surface related to radioactivity and air pollution at three different locations inMysore, India

N.Ragini, M.S.Chandrashekara, L.Paramesh, T.S.Shashikumar, J.Sannappa

The atmospheric electrical conductivity was recorded during 2006 at Mysore(12oN, 76oE), India, in fair weather days. The observations of conductivities were made at three different locations in Mysore. The first location is Maharani’s Science College Campus (MSCM), second is the Manasagangotri, University Campus (MGM) and the third is St. Joseph’s School campus (SJS). The total electrical conductivity varies from 4.4 to 64.6 fS.m-1 10.4 to 44.5 fS.m-1 and 1.6 to 98.8 fS.m-1 inMSCM,MGMand SJS respectively. Overall diurnal variation shows that in MSCM campus the concentration of radon and its progeny and electrical conductivity values are slightly higher than in MGM campus. Conductivity values in SJS are higher than the other two locations even though the trend of diurnal variation is similar in all the three locations.We have observed that even though radon concentrations atMGMare slightly higher than that of SJS conductivity values are lower. This may be attributed to air pollution in the area resulting in the loss of small ions due to ion-aerosols and ion –ion recombination processes.