Digitization of Historical Atmospheric Electricity Records from Lerwick Observatory (1927–1956) using Citizen Science

Abstract. Measurements of the atmospheric electric field, measured as the potential gradient (PG), were carried out at Lerwick Observatory (Shetland Isles, UK) during the twentieth century and provide a unique resource for studying links between atmospheric electricity, the global electric circuit (GEC), and climate variability. Most of these historical observations existed previously only as handwritten or printed records, limiting their accessibility for modern analysis. A comprehensive digitization of the Lerwick PG handwritten records from 1927–1956 has been undertaken using a citizen science approach, through the Zooniverse platform. The resulting ready-to-use dataset provides a quality-controlled record of hourly potential gradient measurements, enabling new investigations into long-term atmospheric electricity variability, the global electric circuit, and their associated connections to climate. In addition, seasonal variability analysed on an hourly basis across the entire observation period is presented for the first time.

The dataset is available at Zenodo under https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23427164 (Mkrtchyan et al., 2026).