Fractal dynamics of electric discharges in a thundercloud.
We have investigated the fractal dynamics of intracloud microdischarges responsible for the formation of a so-called drainage system of electric charge transport inside a cloud volume. Microdischarges are related to the nonlinear stage of multiflow instability development, which leads to the generation of a small-scale intracloud electric structure. The latter is modeled by using a two-dimensional lattice of finite-state automata. The results of numerical simulations show that the developed drainage system belongs to the percolation-cluster family. We then point out the parameter region relevant to the proposed model, in which the thundercloud exhibits behavior corresponding to a regime of self-organized criticality. The initial development and statistical properties of dynamic conductive clusters are investigated, and a kinetic equation is introduced, which permits us to find state probabilities of electric cells and to estimate macroscopic parameters of the system.
Iudin
D I
DI
Institute of Applied Physics, Russian Academy of Science, 46 Ulyanov Street, Nizhny Novgorod 603600, Russia.
Trakhtengerts
V Y
VY
Hayakawa
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M