A PRELIMINARY STUDY ON THE CRITERION OF TRIGGERING LIGHTNING

Abstract

The criterion of artificially triggering lightning is studied by using the field at triggering height calculated with one-dimensional model and the data from 7-year experiments in China. Results show that the ambient electric field at triggering height is about -60_??_70kV/m in Heilinzi, northwestern China, where there are large amounts of positive charges in the lower part of storm, while that is 15_??_20kV/m in Nanhui, southeastern China, where the thunderstorm has a dipole charge structure. The increase of electric field with altitude will be helpful to supply energy to corona streamer produced at rocket front. The space charge density below 100m can be as high as -1.1nC/m³ in northwestern China and 0.8nC/m³ in southeastern China.