The SR on other bodies and its astrobiological significance

A general criterion holds for any body: a conductive surface (or another conductive lower boundary) plus a conductive ionosphere together form a cavity resonator, and an observable SR in it requires a source of excitation — typically atmospheric electric discharges Yang 2006. This principle is therefore transferable to other planets and moons with a sufficiently dense atmosphere.

From this follows the astrobiological significance of the SR. The resonance functions as an indirect indicator of lightning and atmospheric electricity, and thus as a source of information about the dynamics of the atmosphere — about the weather, about convection and about the energetic processes in the gaseous envelope of a body. Atmospheric discharges are moreover often associated with prebiotic chemistry: electric sparks can initiate the formation of organic molecules in the atmosphere. Measuring the SR on a foreign body could thus indirectly tell us not only about its weather, but also about conditions potentially relevant to the origin of the building blocks of life.

It must, however, be emphasized where the limits of knowledge lie: apart from Titan (with a single in-situ ELF measurement), these are so far modeled predictions and theoretical considerations, not confirmed observations.

*Cluster L file — part of the Schumann resonance knowledge base.*