Electrodynamics of a convective cloud

An attempt has been made to describe analytically the electrodynamics of a convective cloud on the basis of a one-dimensional convective cell with solid gas rotation. The cloud electrification is due to the interaction between heavy (large raindrops and particles of hail) and light (microparticles of water and ice) particles. As a result, the particles acquire unlike electric charges. The large-scale electric field in the cloud is stipulated by boundary effects and influences considerably the motion of the heavy fraction of aerosol particles. A scenario is proposed for the development of an intracloud charge, by which the large-scale electric field does not reach the breakdown value, staying at the level of the corona discharge field, while an increase in the irregular component of the electric field is continued and achieves the breakdown value in the small-scale electric cells induced by analogues of plasma beam instabilities. The basic electric discharge occurs against the background of multiple discharges inside the cell which provide for the leader lightning channel. Institute of Applied Physics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Nizhny Novgorod. Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Radiofizika, Vol. 40, Nos. 1–2, pp. 123–137, January–February, 1997.     

Thermal parametric turbulence in a plasma

A theory of thermal parametric instability (TPI) in an inhomogeneous magnetoplasma is developed. The threshold pump wave amplitude and increments of TPI are obtained. The spacial spectra of plasma waves and magnetic field aligned density perturbations are determined at the nonlinear stage of TPI, perturbation intensity dependence on pump energy is also analyzed. The theoretical results are applied to explain the ionospheric modification experiments.