Measurements of atmospheric electricity aloft

Measurements of the electrical characteristics of the atmosphere above the surface have been made for over 200 years, from a variety of different platforms, including kites, balloons, rockets and aircraft. From these measurements, a great deal of information about the electrical characteristics of the atmosphere has been gained, assisting our understanding of the global atmospheric electric circuit, thunderstorm electrification and lightning generation mechanisms, discovery of transient luminous events above thunderstorms, and many other electrical phenomena. This paper surveys the history of atmospheric electrical measurements aloft, from the earliest manned balloon ascents to current day observations with free balloons and aircraft. Measurements of atmospheric electrical parameters in a range of meteorological conditions are described, including clear air conditions, polluted conditions, non-thunderstorm clouds, and thunderstorm clouds, spanning a range of atmospheric conditions, from fair weather, to the most electrically active

Knowing your limits: informal governance and judgment in the EU

The burgeoning literature on informal governance has shed new light on the workings of international organizations and the hidden rules of the game. The common thrust of these studies is that informal governance is the result of an implicit agreement among states that, in order to sustain cooperation, it can be necessary to accommodate important interests even if this seemingly goes against the organization's purpose. Struck under conditions of uncertainty, however, implicit agreements such as this are necessarily vague, and their implementation is bound to generate conflicts that threaten to undermine the organization's legitimacy. How, then, do states decide whether formal rules or informal governance apply? This article uses the case of the EU to propose a solution to this dilemma. The central argument is that member states have delegated the authority to adjudicate on demands for informal governance to the office of the Council Presidency. They mold the legislative agenda such that the government in office can be trusted in its judgment. The plausibility of this argument is illustrated with a description of the Presidency's historical development and a case study on the negotiation of the EU's controversial Working Time Directive. Apart from pointing to a missing piece in the literature on informal governance, the study holds more general lessons for the interaction of formal and informal rules as well as the information-providing role of international institutions