(69) Vincent Cataldi. Forum • Index page. Comment on 'The electrification of thunderclouds and the rain gush' by Z. Levin. Comment on 'On the relation of electrical activity to tornadoes' by R. P. Davies. Comments on `Electrification of Condensing and Evaporating Liquid Drops'. Comments on the paper 'The electrification of thunderstorms' Comments on ``thunderstorm electrification: the effect of cloud droplets'' By E. Comment on `A Review of Thunderstorm Electrification Processes'. Quaint cumulus convection conviction. Electric-Field Perturbations Caused by Eruption of Yellowstone Geysers. An explanation for anomalous lightning from forest fire clouds. SAO/NASA ADS Physics Abstract Service · Electronic Refereed Journal Article (HTML)· References in the article· Citations to the Article (16) (Citation History) · Refereed Citations to the Article· Reads History· · Translate This Page Abstract Experiments out of doors and in a wind tunnel show that when trees, vegetation, and other substances are burned in the open air, negative charge is released into the atmosphere under the influence of the fine weather electric field.
The results indicate that the thunderclouds formed as the result of a forest fire have probably grown from air that contains negative, instead of the usual positive, fine weather space charge. Observations showing that cumulonimbus clouds formed over forest fires produced positive, instead of the usual negative, cloud-to-ground lightning, suggest that the electrification of these clouds may have been caused by one or more influence mechanisms. Luminous Electrical Phenomena Associated with Nocturnal Tornadoes in Huntsville, SAO/NASA ADS Physics Abstract Service · Electronic Refereed Journal Article (HTML)· Citations to the Article (2) (Citation History) · Refereed Citations to the Article· Reads History· · Translate This Page Abstract Eyewitness accounts and pictures and presented of the luminous electrical phenomena occurring when severe tornadoes passed through Madison County, Ala.
Gushes of Rain and Mail After Lightning. SAO/NASA ADS Physics Abstract Service · Electronic Refereed Journal Article (HTML)· Citations to the Article (36) (Citation History) · Refereed Citations to the Article· Reads History· · Translate This Page Abstract Observations of thunderstorms in New Mexico were made with a vertically-scanning, 3-cm radar on a mountain top. Prior to a cloud-to-ground lightning discharge nearby, the radar echo overhead was usually quite weak, indicating low intensities of precipitation there. Following the lightning it was observed sometimes that in the region of the cloud where the discharge occurred the radar echo intensity rapidly increased, and shortly thereafter a gush of rain or hail fell nearby.These studies confirm earlier radar observations, made by the authors at Grand Bahama Island, B.W.I., in which it was found that lightning is often followed in the cloud by a rapidly intensifying echo and then by a gush of rain at the ground.
Deductions concerning accumulations of electrified particles in thunderclouds ba. SAO/NASA ADS Physics Abstract Service · Electronic Refereed Journal Article (HTML)· References in the article· Citations to the Article (11) (Citation History) · Refereed Citations to the Article· Reads History· · Translate This Page Abstract The relationships between the space charge in thunderclouds and the lightning that it causes are so complex or so poorly understood that deductions concerning the nature or location of this charge based solely on observations of lightning are open to question. Reduction of thunderstorm electric field intensity produced by corona from a nea.
SAO/NASA ADS Physics Abstract Service · Electronic Refereed Journal Article (HTML)· References in the article· Reads History· · Translate This Page Abstract Measurements with an electric field mill beneath a thundercloud show that space charge produced by corona from a surrounding, horizontal, fine-wire antenna that is connected to the earth greatly reduces the electric field intensity. Artificial Initiation of Lightning Discharges. Artificial Modification of Atmospheric Space Charge.
Correction to "Anomalous electric fields associated with clouds growing over a s. Anomalous electric fields associated with clouds growing over a source of negati. SAO/NASA ADS Physics Abstract Service · Electronic Refereed Journal Article (HTML)· References in the article· Citations to the Article (13) (Citation History) · Refereed Citations to the Article· Reads History· · Translate This Page Abstract Tests of influence mechanism explanations for thundercloud electrification have been attempted by modifying the initial atmospheric electrical conditions beneath some convective clouds.
The modification was accomplished by the release of negative space charges into the air from elevated wires connected to a high-voltage power supply. Anomalous distributions of charge were observed in some clouds with low bases that grew over the charge source. The results of the experiment suggest that influence mechanisms may be operative in the electrification of our mountain clouds and that, normally, the natural, positive space charges in the sub cloud air may initiate the electrification processes.
Abnormal Polarity of Thunderclouds Grown from Negatively Charged Air. SAO/NASA ADS Physics Abstract Service · Electronic Refereed Journal Article (HTML)· References in the article· Citations to the Article (14) (Citation History) · Refereed Citations to the Article· Reads History· · Translate This Page Abstract Experiments were carried out in New Mexico to determine whether the electrification processes that lead to the formation of lightning in clouds are influenced by the polarity of the charges in the air from which the clouds grow. The normal, positive space charge in the sub-cloud air was reversed by negative charge released from an electrified wire, suspended across a 2-kilometer-wide canyon.
Effect of Atmospheric Space Charge on Initial Electrification of Cumulus Clouds. Electrical Balance in the Lower Atmosphere. A study of stratospheric discharges. SAO/NASA ADS Physics Abstract Service · Reads History· · Translate This Page Abstract Observational data and theoretical considerations in the literature suggest that the electrical activity of large thunderstorms can result in lightning and other dielectric breakdown processes within the stratosphere. Field investigations have been undertaken to secure data on the nature of these discharges and their frequency of occurrence. Studies of lightning spectra made from the ground in New York and New Mexico failed to indicate anomalous spectra that might characterize low pressure discharges in the stratosphere.
Photographs, spectral observations, and field change measurements were made from a U-2 aircraft looking down on an active thunderstorm suggesting that lightning discharges can frequently be produced that will traverse stratospheric air. Tropospheric electrification. SAO/NASA ADS Physics Abstract Service · Reads History· · Translate This Page Abstract The solid Earth carried a negative charge of approximately 10 C to the 6 th power and the lower atmosphere an equal, opposite charge. While a number of charging processes in the lower atmosphere are involved, such as erupting volcanoes, snow, sand and dust storms, and the bubbles bursting from the oceans, the primary cause of the Earth's electrification is activity of thunderstorms.
Although it is known that the electrification of these clouds is caused by the accumulation of regions of charged water particles, there is no general agreement concerning which process is the cause of the electrification within the cloud and what role this electrification plays in the meteorological processes that take place in the lower atmosphere. The development of thunderclouds and the electric fields and currents above them are discussed. [Comment on “Solar wind mechanism suggested for weather and climate change. SAO/NASA ADS Physics Abstract Service · Electronic On-line Article (HTML)· References in the Article· Citations to the Article (2) (Citation History) · Refereed Citations to the Article· Reads History· · Translate This Page Abstract In “Solar Wind Mechanism Suggested for Weather and Climate Change” [Eos, August 9,1994], Brian A. Tinsley suggests that solar activity is modulating weather and climate through the effects it produces on the Earth's fair-weather electric field.
This may well be true. It is questionable, however, whether the fair-weather electric field is strong enough to cause ice crystal formation in clouds by electrofreezing, as he has assumed.From Pruppacher [1973], it is evident that demonstrations of electrofreezing involve electric fields about a thousand times more intense and a million-fold more energetic than the electric field Tinsley believes is causing the formation of ice crystals in clouds.
Miniature vortices produced by electrical corona. SAO/NASA ADS Physics Abstract Service · Electronic Refereed Journal Article (HTML)· Table of Contents· References in the article· Citations to the Article (1) (Citation History) · Refereed Citations to the Article· Reads History· · Translate This Page Abstract Laboratory experiment shows how a small whirlwind can be created under the influence of an electric field. This demonstrates one mechanism whereby a portion of the electrical energy in a thundercloud might be transformed into kinetic energy within atmospheric vortices. Allegiance to theory changes with the wind. SAO/NASA ADS Physics Abstract Service · Electronic On-line Article (HTML)· Reads History· · Translate This Page Abstract In Peter Hobbs' “Clouds: Their Beauty and Challenge,” (Eos, March 29, 1994) a few points are deserving of comment.He is indeed correct that “The cloud seeding hypothesis was based on a very simple, naive picture of the factors that control precipitation in real clouds.”
It is worth noting that at the time almost the entire meteorological community shared the naive view that all precipitation particles begin as ice crystals according to the theory of Tor Bergeron. The Atmospheric Electricity Paradigm. SAO/NASA ADS Physics Abstract Service · Electronic Refereed Journal Article (HTML)· Citations to the Article (6) (Citation History) · Refereed Citations to the Article· Reads History· · Translate This Page Abstract Remarkable aspects of the thundercloud are its intense electrification, precipitation, and convection. A satisfactory understanding of how a thunderstorm works will require a continuing series of investigations to explore the complicated interrelationships among these phenomena. Until now the major effort has been devoted to studies of how precipitation causes electrification.For a century, investigations of thunderstorms have been dominated by the idea that lightning is produced by a charge-separation process within the cloud caused by failing precipitation.
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