Preface [to special section on International Conference on Atmospheric Electricity]

The Ninth International Conference on Atmospheric Electricity (ICAE) was held on June 15-19, 1992, in St. Petersburg, Russia.These conferences are organized by the International Commission on Atmospheric Electricity about every four years to stimulate communication among scientists and to discuss progress on an international level.Previous conferences were held in the United States, Switzerland, Japan, Germany, England, and Sweden.The political and social changes in the former East Block countries made it possible, for the first time, for western scientists to interact freely with scientists of the former Soviet Union.This not only made it possible to recognize the status and priorities of research in atmospheric electricity in Russia and other eastern countries but also provided opportunities to stimulate new beginnings in the now more open research society.A difficulty did arise in an attempt to produce the proceedings.While the proceedings handed out at the conference served well to bridge language difficulties and stimulate discussions, the absence of a review process and the vast differences in presentation styles and considerable language problems make the proceedings a less usable reference document.Following the lead of the two previous conferences, authors were encouraged to submit their presentations to the Journal of Geophysical Research for review by anonymous referees.Insurmountable problems were the slow communication with the authors in the eastern countries and the problem of the English language for them.The situation was also aggravated by the different styles of writing used.All this led to delays for publishing a special issue in the Journal of Geophysical Research.To avoid intolerable publication delays for most authors, it was decided to publish the papers from the Ninth International Conference on Atmospheric Electricity in two issues.This volume contains most but not all acceptable papers, as some are still in the review process.With more than 300 papers presented at the conference, many in an inadequate English style, it became a frustrating problem to find competent reviewers with exceptional patience.I would like to thank all reviewers for the many hours they devoted to the careful evaluation and contructive criticism.Many reviewed more than two papers at a time or helped considerably in improving grammar and style.