Stepped Leader in Lightning

Steve Wilson · 2020-10-01T19:09:05+00:00

On September 13, I gave a short reply to JL on the iniation of a lightning stroke. Here is the text: A stepped leader starts in the cloud and reaches towards the earth. When it gets close, a streamer reaches up from the earth. When it reaches the leader, a conductive path is formed that allows the discharge from the cloud to the ground. Here are some videos in slow motion: Sprites, Jets, and Glowing Balls: The Science of Lightning How does lightning work? Where does it come from? | Weather Wise S2E2 Lightning Strike at 103,000 FPS - in Singapore Lightning in Super Slow Motion This left the question what is a stepped leader? I came across an article that gives a good description. I'll give the text here, but check out the link. It has good pictures that explain better. "Inside a thunderhead, electrical charges become separated. Warm updrafts sweep positive charges aloft, leaving the bottom of the cloud negatively charged. The attraction between the ground and the negative charges in the bottom of the cloud creates the lightning stroke, a brief current of negative charge that travels from cloud to ground. The awesome power of the lightning stroke originates in the thunderstorm cloud where charges somehow become separated. There are several complicated theories that try to explain the actual mechanism of this charge separation, but no one really knows what pulls the charges apart in a thunderstorm cloud. It is believed that somehow water drops in the cloud become negatively charged and, being heavier than the surrounding air, fall to the bottom of the cloud. Meanwhile, the positive ions left behind are swept upward to the top of the cloud by the warm updrafts within the thunderhead. As more and more charges separate, parts of the cloud become so highly charged that the electrical forces tear nearby air molecules apart, making more charged fragments. Since the ground beneath the cloud has far fewer negative charges on it than the bottom of the cloud, there is an...

Oct 01, 2020 20 Replies

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Bill Sloman 6 years ago

Try voltage regulator diode. "Zener diode" has worked for as long as I've known about them (which is some 55 years now). It might not be technically accurate, but it's demonstrably good enough for practical use.

Why should they bother? Who would it help? And how?

Bill Sloman, Sydney

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