Modeling of Electrostatic Fields for Non-harmattan season in Northern Nigeria

This paper presents the modeling of the electrostatic fields during the non-harmattan season in Zaria, Nigeria, based on the on-line data capturing mechanism, which involved the use a data acquisition system, interfaced with a digital electrostatic field strength meter (model 257D) and a computer system. The acquired electric field data are captured by a computer using the Microsoft Office Excel Program and electric field data captured for twenty-four months (February, 2007-February2009), out of which April-September 2007and 2008 respectively are presented in this paper. The focus of the analysis is determining the effect of environmental factors such as temperature T, pressure P and relative humidity H on the static electric field during the non-harmattan period. The plots of the electric field against the variation of the environmental factors were used as the qualitative analytical tools. The data were statistically analyzed using a non-linear regression model to establish an equation model for non-harmattan scenario as E =-149.813118 + 0.003588*H + 0.06191*T + 0.2061*P. The standard error between the model and experimental values obtained was 0.274. This was found to be insignificant. The coefficient of determination values (R2), which is a measure of how well the model fits into the analyzed data was obtained as 0.55, hence, the obtained model could be relied upon to predict electrostatic field values in non-harmattan periods in Northern Nigeria