01 Oct 2025
| 01 Oct 2025
Status: this preprint is currently under review for the journal HGSS.
First decade of atmospheric electricity observations at Świder Observatory
Abstract. Since October 1929 measurements of the atmospheric potential gradient (PG) have entered routine operation at the Magnetic Observatory in Świder, Poland. This started a new chapter in the history of the Observatory. Two Benndorf electrometers recorded continuously until September 1939. The war disrupted these observations as well as shattered efforts to publish the results of nearly a decade. Nevertheless, these early actions initiated by the Observatory management shaped its future as it became a contemporary atmospheric electricity station in the second half of the 20th century.
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The manuscript describes the establishment of atmospheric electricity measurements at the observatory Swider in great detail. Although the corresponding data are lost, these details are worth to be preserved, and I tend to accept the manuscript for publication in HGSS.
However I suggest some additions.
1. Since the data had been destroyed in WWII. even some early results should be included, if possible. Perhaps some early and preliminary results are contained in later publications (Kalinowski, 1937b, 1939, or Kalinowska 1960, or Kalinowska-Widomska 1955).
2. It would be convenient for the reader, if a block diagram of the measurement installation, described in lines 133 to 150 can be sketched and included. Fig. 2 needs some explanations.
3. Section 4 is not really a "conclusion". It should be renamed as something like "The modern Swider Observatory". It should be mentioned that it is now called "Stanislaw Kalinowski Geophysical Observatory" and it should be clearly stated if the observatory still continues to observe atmospheric electricity parameters. In line 191 it it said that two instruments are still exist, but it is not clear, if they are still in use.
4. There are "?" in serveral places (lines 131, 206, 218, 304) which should be replaced.