The Global Electric Circuit Power Budget: A Closure Test Between Thunderstorm Supply and Fair-Weather Dissipation

The global electric circuit is tested as a power system. Thunderstorm supply is built independently from a per-storm generator current (central 1.0 A) and a count of simultaneously active thunderstorms (central 1,500), giving 1,500 A and 375 MW at an ionospheric potential of 250 kV. Fair-weather load is built independently from ocean and land current densities (2.4 and 1.6 pA/m2) over the surface area of the Earth, giving 1,105 A and 276 MW. The central closure factor is 1.36; the full independent bracket is 0.35 to 3.75. Closure at the observed central storm count requires a mean generator current of 0.74 A per storm; at 0.5 A per storm the circuit requires 2,210 active storms. All numbers are produced by the deposited compute.py. AI use is disclosed: drafting and computation assistance was provided by Dave, an AI system built and operated under the author's direction. The author, William Alexander Aldred, directed the work and is sole author of record.