Lightning Initiation as a Consequence of Natural Thundercloud Evolution. Part 1. The Role of Detachment in Reducing the Critical Air Breakdown Field

Abstract

Direct measurements show that the maximum values of electric fields measured in thunderclouds are approximately an order of magnitude lower than the air breakdown (ionization threshold) field. At first glance, this means the impossibility of electron avalanches to form and, as a consequence, the impossibility of a lightning discharge to occur. This circumstance puts the question about the lightning origin physical mechanism on a par with the most amazing mysteries of the nature. For more than half a century of research, several mechanisms have been proposed to solve this problem, among which two main lines can be distinguished. The first group of approaches focuses on the possibility of a streamer or a system of streamers to initiate from the surface of one or several hydrometeors, while the second one interprets lightning initiation as a consequence of the runaway electrons breakdown emerging from the interaction between high-energy cosmic rays and the atmosphere. There are also hybrid scenarios that combine both the ideas. However, in view of certain limitations, none of the proposed approaches has been recognized as the final solution to the problem. The article describes a fundamentally new lightning initiation mechanism that develops sequentially on several spatiotemporal scales. The scenario proposed shows how a series of corona discharges occurring during collisions of hydrometeors seeds the cloud with decimeter-scale elevated ionic conductivity regions, the electric field at the poles of which increases to the level necessary for positive streamers to appear. At the next stage, multiple streamer discharges oriented by the direction of a large-scale electric field are combined into a single plasma network, within which a hot leader channel is formed. The mechanism discussed effectively utilizes small-scale and mesoscale electric field fluctuations arising in a thundercloud and can be implemented if the spatiotemporal frequency of corona discharges, accompanying collisions and near collisions of hydrometeors, and the potential difference between the strong intracloud field zone boundaries exceed 0.1 m-3s-1 and 3 MV, respectively. In contrast to alternative approaches, the proposed lightning initiation scenario can be implemented under the conditions of a typical thundercloud without the need to involve any external auxiliary factors. The study results are presented in three parts. This article gives an introductory part, which sets the general context of the narrative and determines the study aims, and describes the role the detachment of electrons from negative ions plays in the air breakdown field reduction. The authors' lightning initiation scenario based on the results described in the present paper is given in two subsequent publications.