Potential Applications of Particulate Electrification

Abstract

The basic charge structure of the convective updraft in a thundercloud has four charged regions alternating in polarity, with the lowest being positively charged. The three lower charged regions fit well with the classical tripole charge model of thunderstorms, which suggests a main negatively charged region between a main upper positively charged region and a lower positively charged region. The formation of the tripole charged structure is usually explained by the ice crystal-graupel collision charging which has been commonly recognized as the dominant mechanism of severe thunderstorm electrification. The relative growth rate was based on laboratory experiments and this hypothesis can indeed explain the phenomenon of charge-reversal and the formed tripole structure of thunderclouds, but the mechanism of the relative growth rate is still unclear.