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Charge on the Earth



John Mallinckrodt says:

Because of the fact that the earth itself deviates substantially from
electrical neutrality (with typical fields near the surface of 100 V/m
implying a total charge on the order of half a million C), no object--
capacitor, battery, or flying squirrel--is likely to be neutral either.

Can you suggest a reference or two that gives more details about the charge
of the earth or the ambient fields typically found near the surface?
I knew the earth had a magnetic field, but I didn't know that it had an
electric one.

--
--James McLean
jmclean@chem.ucsd.edu
post doc
UC San Diego, Chemistry