Phys Rev E Stat Nonlin Soft Matter Phys. 2003 Jul;68(1):016601. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevE.68.016601. Epub 2003 Jul 03.

Fractal dynamics of electric discharges in a thundercloud.

Physical review. E, Statistical, nonlinear, and soft matter physics

D I Iudin, V Y Trakhtengerts, M Hayakawa

PMID: 12935264 DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevE.68.016601

Abstract

We have investigated the fractal dynamics of intracloud microdischarges responsible for the formation of a so-called drainage system of electric charge transport inside a cloud volume. Microdischarges are related to the nonlinear stage of multiflow instability development, which leads to the generation of a small-scale intracloud electric structure. The latter is modeled by using a two-dimensional lattice of finite-state automata. The results of numerical simulations show that the developed drainage system belongs to the percolation-cluster family. We then point out the parameter region relevant to the proposed model, in which the thundercloud exhibits behavior corresponding to a regime of self-organized criticality. The initial development and statistical properties of dynamic conductive clusters are investigated, and a kinetic equation is introduced, which permits us to find state probabilities of electric cells and to estimate macroscopic parameters of the system.

Publication Types

• Journal Article