Phys. Rev. E 67, 061104 (2003) [10 pages]Lattice model of the early stages of the electrification of a cloudReceived 18 March 2002; revised 15 October 2002; published 9 June 2003 The early stages of the microphysics of the electrification process within a cloud are considered using a two-dimensional lattice model. Using insights generated from Monte Carlo simulations and the theory of finite Markov processes, the mean walk length statistics of the particles, the instantaneous electric potential and electric field profiles, the time evolution of electrostatic energy and their dependence on system size are studied. Some unexpected features of the kinetics of electrification and of the statistics of crossings of the threshold for an electric discharge to occur are brought out. © 2003 The American Physical Society URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevE.67.061104
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevE.67.061104
PACS:
05.40.-a, 05.10.Ln, 51.50.+v
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