Ionosphere Drainage

The launch loop may form a current drainage path from the conductive ionosphere to the ground.

According to wikipedia, there are 240,000 lightning strikes per year, an average of 15 coulombs and 1 GJ each. That is 3.6 megacolombs per year, or 114 mA average. The average discharge voltage is 1GJ/15C = 67 MV, and the average power is 7.6 megawatts. The effective resistance is 240 M-ohm.

The conductivity of the atmosphere near the ground is 2e-10 mho-kilometers (5 G-ohm/km) in the daytime; at 80 km, it is 5e-2 mho-kilometers (20 ohm/km), and at 100 km, it is 20 mho-kilometers (0.05 ohm/km) . A layer from 100 to 110 km might have a sheet resistance of 0.005 ohms per square, although the Earth's magnetic field will likely create a very large Hall voltage for large currents. Still, for an average of a few hundred milliamps, a connection to the ionosphere anywhere is a connection to the entire layer, and a connection at the launch loop to ground (actually, to 0.2 ohm/meter seawater) will be a pretty good short to ground.

This may eliminate lighting storms globally, reduce UV shielding ozone, and reduce the formation of nitrogen fertilizers. YIKES.