ABSTRACT
This chapter is concerned with quasistatic electromagnetic fields in the earth's atmosphere. Like the atmosphere, the lower ionosphere is strongly influenced by the neutral atmosphere. Plasma physics is the background theoretical discipline for ionospheric and magnetospheric physics. Much of ionospheric and magnetospheric dynamics is modeled in a collisionless limit where large angle collisions between charge carriers or between charge carriers and any background neutral atmosphere are ignored. The chapter presents a set of common equations in which it will be seen that a fully collisional plasma physics approach is applicable to the conducting fluid atmosphere from the ground up to high altitudes. It provides the derivation of the momentum transfer equation and the generalized Ohm's law. The chapter discusses various parameters, which include the charge density, conductivity and mobility, current density, and the various source electric fields that are applicable to the electrodynamics of the atmosphere.
