Lightning

by Martin A. Uman

Overview

Awesome to any beholder, lightning has been a subject of intense interest to scientists curious about its exact physical nature. There was a dearth of comprehensive scientific literature on the subject until the publication of this volume. Geared toward advanced undergraduates in physics or engineering, it features remarkable clarity and a minimum of mathematical notation, making it accessible to nonspecialists and useful as a teaching resource or for self-study.
Dr. Uman, whose own work has contributed greatly to understanding the physics of lightning, presents a general introduction to lightning phenomena and terminology, lightning photography, electrical and magnetic field measurements, and current measurements. Additional topics include lightning spectroscopy and thunder, a wealth of new and detailed analyses of the latest data, and reviews of theories regarding the discharge process from the special vantage point of a scientist well-versed in plasma physics. Five appendices bring recent research up to date, covering such phenomena as bead and ball lightning and reviewing experimental data and modeling. This authoritative exposition of the many physical phenomena associated with lightning is the only inexpensive single-volume presentation on the subject.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780486150956
Publisher:	Dover Publications
Publication date:	04/26/2012
Series:	Dover Books on Physics
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	320
File size:	13 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Introduction to Lightning
1.1 Lightning and Thunderclouds
1.2 The Stepped Leader
1.3 The Return Stroke
1.4 The Dart Leader
1.5 More on Strokes and Flashes
1.6 Intracloud Discharges
1.7 Strokes Bringing Positive Charge to Earth
1.8 Strokes with Upward-developing Leaders
1.9 Other Lightning Forms
References
Chapter 2 Lightning Photography
2.1 Early Studies
2.2 The Boys Camera
2.3 The South African Work
2.3.1 Introduction
2.3.2 The stepped leader
2.3.3 Dart and dart-stepped leaders
2.3.4 First return strokes
2.3.5 Subsequent return strokes
2.3.6 Branch components and M components
2.3.7 Miscellaneous
2.4 Lightning Photography in the United States
2.4.1 Introduction
2.4.2 The Empire State Building study
2.4.3 The Pittsfield study
2.5 Recent Studies
2.5.1 Introduction
2.5.2 Lightning photography in Arizona
2.5.3 Lightning photography in New Mexico
2.5.4 Lightning photography in Switzerland
References
Chapter 3 Electric and Magnetic Field Measurements
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Electrostatics
3.3 Magnetostatics
3.4 Electromagnetlcs
3.5 Field-measuring Apparatus
3.5.1 Electronic measurement of electric field intensity
3.5.2 The field mill or electrostatic fluxmeter
3.5.3 Miscellaneous electric field measuring techniques
3.5.4 Magnetic field measurements
3.6 Early Electrostatic Field Measurements: The Electric-dipole Cloud Model
3.7 The Electrostatic Field Change Due to Cloud-to-Ground Lightning
3.7.1 Introduction
3.7.2 The stepped leader
3.7.3 The dart leader
3.7.4 The return stroke
3.7.5 Processes occurring between strokes
3.7.6 Discharges lowering positive charge to earth
3.8 The Electrostatic Field Change Due to Cloud Discharges
3.9 The Magnetostatic Fields of Lightning
3.10 The Radiation Fields of Lightning
References
Chapter 4 Current Measurements
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Measurement Techniques
4.2.1 Instruments using Lichtenberg figures
4.2.2 Instruments using magnetizable materials
4.2.3 The noninductive shunt and oscilloscope
4.2.4 The loop antenna and oscilloscope
4.2.5 Miscellaneous measurement techniques
4.3 Current in Cloud-to-ground Lightning Discharges
4.4 Discharges Initiated by Upward-moving Leaders.
4.5 Other Current Measurements
References
Chapter 5 Lightning Spectroscopy
5.1 Early History
5.2 Experimental Techniques
5.2.1 The slit spectrometer
5.2.2 The slitless spectrometer
5.2.3 Quantitative spectroscopic measurements from photographic film
5.2.4 Spectroscopy utilizing photoelectric detectors
5.3 Theory
5.4 Lightning Spectroscopy: 1940-1960
5.5 Lightning Spectroscopy after 1960
5.5.1 General
5.5.2 Return-stroke properties
References
Chapter 6 Thunder
6.1 Early History
6.2 The Experimental Data
6.3 Ideas and Theories
6.3.1 The shock wave
6.3.2 The sound wave
References
Chapter 7 Theory: The Discharge Processes
7.1 Introduction
7.2 Discharge Mechanisms
7.2.1 Introduction
7.2.2 Discharge phenomena in the absence of appreciable space charge
7.2.3 Discharge phenomena in the presence of space charge
7.3 Some Rough Calculations
7.3.1 Some electrostatic relations
7.3.2 Cloud-charge dimensions and leader radius
7.3.3 The cloud-to-ground potential difference and energy available for lightning
7.4 Stepped-leader Theories
7.4.1 The experimental data
7.4.2 The two original theories of the stepped leader
7.4.3 Other stepped-leader theories
7.4.4 Stepped-leader initiation
7.5 Dart-leader Theories
7.6 Return-stroke Theories
7.7 The Lightning Channel between Strokes
References
Appendix A Some Suggestions for Future Lightning Research
Appendix B Bead Lightning
Appendix C Ball Lightning
Appendix D Recent Developments
Appendix E Review of Natural Lightning: Experimental Data and Modeling
Name Index
Subject Index