Some inferences on the role of lower positive charge region in facilitating different types of lightning

It is generally thought that the lower positive charge region serves to enhance the electric field at the bottom of the main negative charge region and thereby facilitate the launching of a negatively‐charged leader toward ground. On the other hand, the presence of excessive lower positive charge re...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Geophysical research letters 2009-03, Vol.36 (5), p.n/a
Main Authors: Nag, Amitabh, Rakov, Vladimir A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Atmospheric sciences
different lightning types
Earth sciences
Earth, ocean, space
Exact sciences and technology
Lightning
lower positive charge region
preliminary breakdown
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Summary:It is generally thought that the lower positive charge region serves to enhance the electric field at the bottom of the main negative charge region and thereby facilitate the launching of a negatively‐charged leader toward ground. On the other hand, the presence of excessive lower positive charge region may prevent the occurrence of negative cloud‐to‐ground discharges by “blocking” the progression of descending negative leader from reaching ground and thus “converting” the potential cloud‐to‐ground flash to an intracloud (or cloud‐to‐air) one. Assuming that the preliminary breakdown pulse train is a manifestation of interaction of a downward‐extending negative leader channel with the lower positive charge region, we qualitatively examine the inferred dependence of lightning type on the magnitude of this charge region.
ISSN:0094-8276
1944-8007
DOI:10.1029/2008GL036783