2014 International Conference on Lightning Protection (ICLP), Shanghai, China

A huristic approach to obtain the electric fields

necessary for the initiation of upward lightning
flashes from towers in the presence of glow corona

Vernon Cooray Liliana Arevalo

Department of Engineering Sciences R&D department
Uppsala University ABB Power System, HVDC
Uppsala, Sweden Ludvika, Sweden
Vernon.Cooray@angstrom.uu.se Liliana.Arevalo@se.abb.com

Abstract— Based on simple physical considerations a set of
criteria that could be used to judge the instant of upward leader
initiation from a tower under the influence of a background
electric field in the presence of glow corona is obtained. The
background electric fields necessary for leader inception from
towers of different heights obtained using these criteria are in
agreement with the values obtained using more advanced
simulations.
intensification of the glow corona initially but further increase
in the electric field leads to the formation of streamer
discharges from the tip of the conductor. These streamer
discharges are called breakdown streamers and they give rise
to a leader discharge that propagates towards the
thundercloud. This upward moving leader will culminate in an
upward lightning flash.

Keywords: Lightning, Stepped leader, Space leader, Space stem One of the most important problems in lightning research is to
understand the conditions at which the breaking of the glow
I. INTRODUCTION corona takes place leading to the formation of streamers i.e.
glow to streamer transition. Recently, several complicated
simulation procedures were introduced to tackle this problem
Lightning flashes can be divided into two categories, namely,
[1, 2, 3]. The goal of this paper is to derive simple criterion or
upward and downward flashes. Upward flashes are initiated
criteria that could be used without much computation to
from tall structures by the slowly increasing background
estimate the background electric field at which the glow to
electric field of a thundercloud or by a sudden electric field
streamer transition takes place from towers of different heights
change caused by a nearby lightning flash.
immersed in the background electric field of thunderclouds.
Results obtained are compared with the theoretical predictions
Consider a tower located in the background electric field of a
of more complex simulation procedures and with the
thundercloud. As the electric field generated by the cloud
experimental data obtained from the rocket triggered lightning
increases streamer discharges are initiated from the tip of the
flashes.
conductor. These are called preliminary streamers in the
literature. If the electric field continues to increase slowly the
streamer activity intensifies. During this activity electrons are II. THE MODEL
transported towards the tip of the conductor. The attachment
of these electrons to electronegative molecules such as
The model is based on two physically reasonable hypotheses.
Oxygen molecules gives rise to a cloud of negative ion charge
They are the following:
in the vicinity of the tip of the conductor. This negative charge
intensifies the electric field in the gap between the negative
1. In a slowly increasing electric field the positive space
ion cloud and the tip of the conductor and decreases the
charge reduces and limits the background electric
electric field in the opposite direction. This decrease in the
field in regions where it could be larger than the
electric field chokes off the streamer activity completely. In
breakdown electric field to a value more or less equal
this stage the discharge activity takes place only in the thin
to the breakdown electric field.
sheath or gap between the negative space charge and the tip of
2. The negative space charge layer associated with the
the conductor. This situation is called glow corona. If the
glow corona reduces this electric field even further.
electric field continues to increase slowly it will lead to an

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Now, consider a lightning rod or a tower immersed in a slowly
increasing electric field where the time variation of the electric
field is long enough for the positive space charge to move in
the discharge volume. As the electric field increases the
ionization of air starts at the tip of the rod and with increasing
electric field this ionization process gives rise to streamer
discharges that move into the low field region. These
streamers are called preliminary streamers. These streamers
populate the discharge volume with both positive ions and
electrons. The electrons will be attracted towards the tip of the
rod and on their way towards the tip most of them will be
captured by electronegative atoms and molecules such as
Oxygen. This negative space charge will accumulate close to
the surface of the electrode reducing the electric field
everywhere except in a thin sheath between the space charge
layer and the electrode surface. The main electrical activity
will thus be confined to this layer and this stage is called the
glow corona stage. Assume that at any given time during glow
corona the background electric field is such that, in the
absence of corona, a region of radius rc around the tip of the
conductor will have an electric field higher than the
breakdown electric field in air. Let us denote it by the
symbol Eb . The effect of negative space charge is to reduce
the electric field in this region to a value below Eb . With
increasing background electric field the radius rc increases
but the intensification of glow corona maintains the electric
field within this radius to a value below the breakdown
electric field.
Now, the energy released during the attachment of electrons to
Oxygen molecule i.e. electron affinity, is about 0.5 eV. In
order to release the electrons from negative ions any collision
taking place between the negative ions and neutrals must
contain energy larger than this value. As the electric field to
which the negative ions are exposed increases the kinetic
energy of the ions increases and the ions gain sufficient energy
for electron detachment during collisions when the electric
field increases to a value on the order of 5 x 107 V/m [4]. Thus
a gradual destruction of the negative ion sheath takes place as
the electric field at the surface of the electrode continues to
grow beyond this value. As the screening effect of the
negative charge decreases the electric field in the active region
(i.e. the region within radius rc ) increases to a value equal to
Eb .
Now consider an electron located at the outer boundary of the
active region. Since the electric field in the active region is
equal to Eb , it can give rise to an electron avalanche as it
moves towards the tip of the conductor. In order for it to
generate a streamer the value of rc should be such that
e rc  108 (1)
158
In the above equation  is the effective ionization coefficient
corresponding to the breakdown electric field in air. The value
of rc that satisfies equation 1 is equal to 0.08 m. Now, we are
in a position to state the two conditions that has to be satisfied
for the glow to streamer transition at the tip of a lightning
conductor. They are the following:
1. The local electric field at the tip of the conductor
increases to value of about 5 x 107 V/m.
2. The radius of the active region rc increases to a value
of about 0.08 m.
Let us now apply these two conditions to evaluate the
background electric fields necessary for glow to streamer
transition in conductors of different heights.
III. RESULTS
The criterion developed earlier for the glow to streamer
transition is used to evaluate the background electric field
necessary for the development of a leader from a tower
undergoing glow discharge. Since the background electric
field necessary to generate a leader is significantly less than
the value necessary in the presence of glow corona it is
assumed that the glow to streamer transition i.e. creation of a
streamer leads immediately to the formation of an upward
leader. The results of our calculation for towers of different
heights are shown in Figure 1. In the analysis the tower is
represented by a cylinder of 1 m radius with a hemispherical
tip. A lightning conductor of length 2 m is connected at the
top. In obtaining the data presented in Figure 1 radius of the
lightning conductor is assumed to be 0.05 m. However, out
calculations show that almost the same results will be obtained
if the conductor radius is reduced to 0.01 m. Moreover, for a
given radius of the lightning conductor the radius of the tower
does not influence the results significantly. In the same Figure
the data obtained by Bazelyan et al. [1] for the background
electric field necessary for the development of leaders from
towers undergoing glow corona is also shown (crosses). Note
that our results are not that different to the values obtained
using a more sophisticated method by Bazelyan et al. [1]. For
comparison purposes the background electric field necessary
for the generation of a leader in the absence of glow corona as
evaluated using the lightning attachment model SLIM is also
shown in the same Figure (red solid circles) [5]. Note that the
background electric field necessary to generate a leader in the
presence of glow corona is significantly larger than the one
necessary in the absence of glow corona.
In a recent study Willett et al. [6] conducted simultaneous
measurement of the ambient electric field profile and the
height of the conducting wire attached to the rocket at the
moment of creation of a upward moving connecting leader
from the tip of the rocket in classical triggered lightning
experiment. The results obtained by Willett et al. [6] are
80 shown together with the results obtained in this paper in
Figure 2. Note that the data points obtained by Willett et al.
[6] falls in between the curves pertinent to the conductors in
60 the presence and absence of glow corona. In the case of the
Electric field, kV/m

triggered lightning experiment the rocket is travelling upwards

with a certain speed and one can expect this to reduce the
40 effects of corona in comparison to a stationary wire in the
same background electric field.
20
IV. CONCLUSIONS

0
0 100 200 300 400 500 A simple model is developed to obtain the background electric
Tower height, m fields necessary for the generation of upward leaders from
towers undergoing glow corona. The results obtained from the
Figure1: The background electric field necessary to generate a simple model are not that far from the results obtained by other
leader from a tower under glow corona condition (solid lines, researchers using more complicated models.
red: 0.01 m radius; blue: 0.05 m radius). The crosses
correspond to the prediction of Bazelyan et al. [1]. The solid REFERENCES
circles represent the electric fields necessary to generate
leaders in the absence of corona as calculated by Becerra et al. [1] E. M. Bazelyan, Yu. P. Raizer, N. L. Aleksandrov, Corona initiatied
[5] using the model SLIM. from grounded objects under thunderstorm conditions and its influence
on lightning attachment, Plasma Sources Sci. Technol., vol. 17, 024015,
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[4] Roche, A. E., and C. C. Goodyear, Electron detachment from negative
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20 [5] Becerra, M. ; Cooray, V.; Soula, S.; Chauzy, S., Effect of the space
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Research, Vol. 112, D12205, doi:10.1029/2006JD008308, 2007.
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[6] Willett, J. C, D. A. Davis, and P. Laroche, An experimental study of
0 100 200 300 400 500 positive leaders initiating rocket-triggered lightning, Atmospher.
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Figure 2: The experimental data of Willett et al. [6]. The two

solid curves correspond to the background electric fields
necessary to generate leaders in the presence (red curve) and
absence (blue curve) of glow corona.

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