The ground is the attractor. The cloud carries the excess ions (electrons grabbed mostly from the air molecules). It ALWAYS goes from cloud, to ground when a bolt dumps the cloud's load.
The ONLY other is from cloud to cloud, as in "heat lightning".
But all cloud to Earth strokes are downward flows, regardless of how the leader and plasma propagation might make some of them appear.
You positively have a negative attitude on this...
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That might be true, but it is not because the earth is neutral. At least most lightning is transferring charge from the clouds to the ground because the earth is being actively negatively charged. Though, I think this assumes the earth plus atmosphere is neutral.
From Yahoo Answers
"The Earth is negatively charged, carrying 500, 000 C of electric charge, and is at 300, 000 V of voltage difference from the positively charged ionosphere. There is a constant flow of electricity, at around
1350 A, and resistance of the Earth atmosphere is around 220 Ohms. This gives a power output of around 400 MW, which is ultimately regenerated by the power of the Sun that affects ionosphere, as well as troposphere, causing thunderstorms. The electrical energy stored in atmosphere is around 150 GJ. The Earth-ionosphere system acts as a giant capacitor, of capacity 1.8 Farads."I read that as the earth being a capacitor with 1350A of leakage current, which is being recharged by lightning strikes.
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