Maximum strength of the atmospheric electric field

2021-03-1 12:17:52

PHYSICAL REVIEW D 103, 043021 (2021)

Understanding the maximum potential difference (i.e. voltage) inside thunderstorms is one of

the fundamental problems of atmospheric physics directly connected with the enigma of the

lightning initiation. In 1925 C.T.R. Wilson estimated the maximum potential difference in the

atmosphere to be a few gigavolts: “A particle may thus acquire energy corresponding to the

greater part of the whole potential difference between the poles of the thundercloud, which

may be of the order of 109 V” [1]. In a talk at the Franklin Institute in 1929 [2] he presented

detailed calculations..