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| Hailstones: Image Via Wikimedia Commons |
Ideas of Aristotle and Donald Ahrens on Meteorology
In 1600 AD, Aristotle's ideas on meteorology explained that thunder is the sound of collision of the dry emanation with the neighboring clouds and lightning is the inflaming and burning of the dry exhalation with a thin and faint fire. In Meteorology Today - authored by Donald Ahrens - explains that a cloud becomes electrified as hail falls through a region in the cloud of supercooled droplets and ice crystals. As liquid droplets collide with hailstone, they freeze on contact and release latent heat.
From the Cooler Object Electrons Flow Toward The Warmer Object
This keeps the surface of the hailstone warmer than that of the surrounding ice crystals. When the hailstone comes in contact with an ice crystals, an important phenomenon occurs - electrons flow from the cooler object toward the warmer object. And because the hailstone becomes negatively charged, the same effect occurs when supercooled droplets come in contact with hailstone and tiny splinters of positively charged ice break off. These lighter positively charged particles are then carried to the upper part of the cloud by updrafts.
Factors in Producing Lightning
Hail is a form of solid precipitation which consists of balls or irregular lumps of ice, that are individually called hailstones. Hail stones on Earth consist mostly of water ice and measure between five millimeters (0.20 in) and 150 millimeters (5.9 in) in diameter, with the larger stones coming from severe thunderstorms.
The hail, left with a negative charge, falls towards the bottom of the cloud, thus the lower part of the cloud becomes negatively charged. These negative charges are then discharged as lightning. And it is concluded that it is the hail the major factor in producing lightning.
The study or science of lightning is called fulminology and the person who studies lightning is referred to as a fulminologist.
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