Submitted by Martin Füllekrug. Received: 2000-05-03

Group A)

* The discussion on the aerosol hypothesis suggested by 
  Kundt has led to two main ideas:
  1) Identify the missing global circuit elements
     a) above the thundercloud
        - The first element has been measured by Gish & Wait,
          JGR, 1950, but the authors indicate a mean storm 
          current of only 0.5 A. It may be of interest to 
          reconsider these technically difficult measurements with the 
          help of an european expert in the field:
          Rejean Grard at ESA: rgrardestecesanl 
     b) return currents within the Earth. 
        - The return currents within the Earth have never 
          been considered and may be a measurable quantity.
          A global circuit modeller in Cambridge, Rob Tyler,
          has shown interest in this regard: rtylerifmuni-kielde
  2) Support the aerosol hypothesis with actual measurements.
     - The split-hemisphere method has been suggested to measure
       the total current in the atmosphere (see Byrne et al., JGR,
       1993) but balloon-borne measurements at higher altitudes
       still seem to be unsuccessfull (see Byrne et al., JATP, 1991).
       These measurements may be able to distinguish between field driven
       ionic currents and the negative aerosols. A german expert 
       who is working with falling spheres has been suggested in this 
       context: Franz-Josef Luebken at luebkenphysikuni-bonnde 

Group B)

* The discussion on sprite occurrences and measurements in Europe
  has been extremely vivid:
  - On the AGU meeting, Mike Taylor reported from a flight
    across Europe (to observe the leonid meteor showers) where he observed
    european sprites. 
  - Torsten Neubert has lend equipment (cameras) from Steven Mende
    to actually observe sprites in Europe: neubertdmidk
    Eventually, the first european sprite campaign will take place
    in August 2000 in the french Pyrenees, supported by Elizabeth Blanc
    blancdasebruyeresceafr  
  - Pierre Laroche has committed himself to dig out climatological 
    information on nocturnal positive lightning occurrences in southern 
    France which may be associated with sprites: laroche@onerafr
  - Colin Price announced the possibility (first target of opportunity)
    of space shuttle based sprite observations by an israelien
    astronaut during the spring of 2001. Reference measurements are 
    warmly welcome: cpriceflashtauacil

General comments)

* Since the ESF network deals with the connection between Space Weather 
  and the Earth weather, it has been suggested to include atmospheric 
  chemists in the field. Rolf Mueller has been suggested in this 
  context: ro.mueller@fz-juelich.de to perform theoretical model 
  calculations on particles influencing atmospheric chemistry. 
* Meteorological reference data bases are badly needed for the 
  success of this network. Martin Fuellekrug digged out climatalogical 
  cloud information from the ICSSP project and the German Weather Service 
  can contribute satellite based black body radiation images. One may
  consider to approach Eumetsat to establish an online data base 
  of satellite images for reference.

Proposals)

* A proposal has been mailed off to Minerva to establish a firm
  collaboration with Colin Price in the associated member state Israel.
  The envisioned work deals with a comparison between global lightning
  flash location and the Earths black body radiation: 
  fuellekrgeophysikuni-frankfurtde.

Publications)

* The first results of global lightning triangulation by use of 
  Schumann resonances are published in the Feb. 1 issue of 
  Geophysical Research Letters.