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Mechanism of lightning discharge

  • Radio Phenomena in Solids and Plasma
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Abstract

A simple model describing lightning on the basis of the conventional equations of charged-gas hydrodynamics is proposed. In the 1D case, a general self-similar solution to the nonlinear equation is obtained. It is demonstrated that the uniform electric field and charge density distributions in a cloud are unstable. A virtually periodic structure of the field and charge densities is formed owing to their spatial redistribution. The theoretical results are in good agreement with the available data.

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Original Russian Text © V.I. Pustovoit, 2006, published in Radiotekhnika i Elektronika, 2006, Vol. 51, No. 8, pp. 996–1002.

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Pustovoit, V.I. Mechanism of lightning discharge. J. Commun. Technol. Electron. 51, 937–943 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1134/S1064226906080110

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S1064226906080110

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