Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
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0.1
0.01
0
10
20
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50
h, km
Fig. 5.12
Distribution of a regular electric field in the atmosphere
Fig. 5.13
Distribution of a charge relaxation time over altitude
If in the troposphere and lower stratosphere this time is many minutes, then in the
mesosphere it is tens of milliseconds, and in the ionosphere it is microseconds. Be-
cause cloud charging caused by the convective processes in the troposphere occurs
during a time period estimated in minutes, and the lightning discharge occurs during
part of a millisecond, the dynamics of the electric field above the cloud demands
calculations that take into the account the distribution of electric conductivity over
the troposphere.
