interesting. i think that this relates to the Van Allen belt. you notice it's not just the equator of the ring that builds plasma, the poles do too, so there is the implication that both aurorae and tropical weather systems also are connected to electricity.

there is a lot of weather phenomena that are strongly connected to magnetic fields, plasma and electricity flowing through the plasma.

it's one of the most interesting things about plasma - it is more conductive than vacuum and non-plasma, non-conductive materials.

i saw a great little presentation on youtube a while back that showed that a tazer modified to put the electrodes too far apart to arc, when placed in front of a flame, were able to arc again, the implication being that the flame is more conductive, and combustion produces a substantial amount of plasma.

around the equator of a planet, the magnetic field created by the core, and like earth and larger planets, made stronger still by a dynamo effect powered by gravity, the magnetic field lines are thinner and have less inhibitory effect on the flow of current around this axis. These regions are called "L-Shells" and they are closely related to why there is monsoons, cyclones and hurrricanes frequently in the region between the tropics. these are the points where the L shells emerge from the crust and they form an magnetic field that allows electrons to emerge from one side and conduct across over in an arc and back down. these up-and-down paths of the magnetism and current that flows through them drive the strong high and low pressure conditions in the atmosphere that give you cyclonic storms.