How is lightning formed?

Thunderstorm clouds (cumulonimbus clouds) are negatively charged below and positively charged on the ground. When they attract each other, an electric current is generated, and when there is light, it is lightning. When lightning happens, it will generate a lot of heat, which will make the surrounding air expand rapidly and make a huge roar. This is lightning.

Lightning is a discharge phenomenon in thunderstorm clouds. Thunderstorm clouds generally have two conditions, sufficient water vapor and strong convection. In winter, because the air is cold and dry, the solar radiation is weak, and convection is not easy to form in the air, so lightning is rare.

But sometimes when the temperature is high in winter, it will form thunderstorm clouds, leading to lightning and rain and snow. Convection is particularly strong, and it can also form hail, which will produce the weather phenomenon of "thunder in winter".

In thunderstorm weather, updraft and downdraft push water molecules to interact, releasing electrons to enhance the electric field strength, and these electrons eventually spread in the air at a speed close to the speed of light. According to dwyer's theory of lightning formation, these high-speed electrons collide with other particles in the atmosphere under the action of energy released by gamma rays or X rays in the electric field, producing powerful thunder and releasing charges.

Extended data

Lightning is a plasma conduction state formed by the extranuclear electrons of space gas excited by electric field, accompanied by optical radiation and thermal effect.

The greater the concentration of water molecules in the air, the more impurities there are, the greater the possibility of breakdown ionization by high-voltage electric field, and the higher the probability and intensity of lightning strike.

The intensity of lightning electric field has two factors. First, the light radiation intensity of lightning and the decibel coefficient of thunderstorm are also related to the electric field intensity. The closer the charged cloud is to the ground, the greater the electric field intensity.

Secondly, the greater the charge of the charged cloud, the higher the electric field intensity, and the electric field intensity is also related to the speed of charge accumulation. The duration of electric field discharge is also related to the speed of cloud charge accumulation, which is what we usually call the range of lightning duration and brightness.

Baidu Encyclopedia-Thunder