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Science 26 September 1986:
Vol. 233. no. 4771, pp. 1413 - 1416
DOI: 10.1126/science.233.4771.1413
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Articles

Abnormal Polarity of Thunderclouds Grown from Negatively Charged Air

C. B. MOORE 1, B. VONNEGUT 2, T. D. ROLAN 1, J. W. COBB, 1, D. N. HOLDEN 1, R. T. HIGNIGHT 1, S. M. MCWILLIAMS 1, and G. W. CADWELL 1

1 Langmuir Laboratory, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, Socorro, NM 87801.
2 Atmospheric Sciences Research Center, State University of New York at Albany, Albany, NY 12222.

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. On more than four occasions when the clouds over the wire grew and became electrified, they were of abnormal polarity with dominant positive charges instead of the usual negative charges in the lower part of the cloud. The formation of these abnormally electrified clouds suggests both that the electrification process in thunderclouds can be initiated and that its polarity may be determined by the small charges that are present in the atmosphere.

Submitted on March 31, 1986
Accepted on July 1, 1986


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Enhanced Positive Cloud-to-Ground Lightning in Thunderstorms Ingesting Smoke from Fires.
W. A. Lyons, T. E. Nelson, E. R. Williams, J. A. Cramer, and T. R. Turner (1998)
Science 282, 77-80
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