The Electrical Nature of Storms

Rapid progress during the last twenty years has created a host of new technologies for studying electrical storms, including lightning mapping systems, new radars, satellite sensors, and new ways of measuring electric field and particle charge. This book explains how these advances have revolutionized our understanding. The books provides substantial background material, making it accessible to a broad scientific audience.

Table of Contents:
Tutorial: Basic Electricity and Magnetism 1: Overview of the Electrical Nature of the Earth's Atmosphere 2: Electrified Nonthunderstorm Clouds 3: Introduction to the Electrical Nature of Thunderstorms 4: Corona and Point Discharge 5: Lightning 6: Instruments 7: Observations of the Electrical Characteristics of Thunderstorms: I. General Characteristics 8: Observations of the Electrical Characteristics of Thunderstorms: II. Severe, Winter, and Tropical Storms and Storm Systems 9: Numerical Models of Thunderstorm Electrification 10: Electrical Effects on Cloud Microphysics Appendix A. Selected Symbols and Definitions Appendix B. Physical Constants and Conversion Factors References Index

Review :
"Lightning is among the nation's worst weather hazards, yet even today the processes that electrify clouds are not completely understood. Together, MacGorman and Rust have spent more than 50 years total in research on lightning and storm electricity at the NOAA National Severe Storms Laboratory, and they have been teaching a graduate course on these topics at the University of Oklahoma for more than a decade. This book represents their attempt to condense an enormous body of literature on the electrical nature of storms into a single volume textbook, something that has been sorely needed for some time. In many ways, this is the right book, by the right people, at the right place, at the right time. . . . The book is clearly the best compilation of material on storm electricity that exists today. It can be used either as a textbook or as a reference work by specialists and nonspecialists alike."--E. Philip Krider in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society "The text is clear and well organized....it would be useful reading for other geoscientists who face the problem of working with inadequate data and difficult data acquisition."--The Society of Exploration Geophysicists "The book begins with a tutorial on basic electricity and magnetism, followed by 10 chapters on various aspects of atmospheric electricity and related phenomena. . .While most of the focus is on thunderstorms, chapters also cover the earth's electric field, electrification of nonthunderstorm clouds, and instruments. The book can serve as a text and also as a reference on recent theories of electrification and modeling of storms." --Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society "This book is one of the most significant contributions to the meteorological literature in the past two decades. I expect it to remain the definitive summary on the electrical processes in clouds for many years into the future." --Richard E. Orville, Department of Meteorology, Texas A&M University "The ten chapters in [this book] span well the spectrum of methods and results in the study of storm electricity: fundamentals of electricity and magnetism, processes of charge separation, storm electrical structure, electrical currents of all kinds, lightning, instruments, numerical cloud models, and electrical effects on cloud processes. The observation of the electrical characteristics of storms, covered in chapters 7 and 8, are the meat and potatoes of this book, with many of the results based on observations in the authors' backyard--the Great Plains. I'd buy the book for these two chapters alone. Further, it contains more than a thousand references, many of which are critically discussed, not just casually cited; no wonder this work was so many years in the making. . . . The authors do an excellent job of laying out the observations, and their clear attention to assembling recent material is likely to make this a book without peer for many years."--Physics Today "MacGorman and Rust discuss everything from the fair-weather electrical field to lightning, the earth's magnetic field, red sprites, and blue jets above the cloud tops. The book encompasses everything currently known about atmospheric electricity and is intended for faculty, professionals, and graduate students. Lightning locating techniques and types of ground flashes are included, so less astute readers can find some practical answers to their questions. Lightning's relationships are discussed with regard to rainfall, tornadoes, winter thunderstorms, and hurricane-type storms. . . . Other topics include particle-charging mechanisms, instruments and measurements, numerical models of thunderstorms, electrification, scavenging of aerosols, and coalescence and growth of drops and ice particles. Excellent index and list of references. A good synopsis of atmospheric electricity primarily for learned readers."--Choice "Lightning is among the nation's worst weather hazards, yet even today the processes that electrify clouds are not completely understood. Together, MacGorman and Rust have spent more than 50 years total in research on lightning and storm electricity at the NOAA National Severe Storms Laboratory, and they have been teaching a graduate course on these topics at the University of Oklahoma for more than a decade. This book represents their attempt to condense an enormous body of literature on the electrical nature of storms into a single volume textbook, something that has been sorely needed for some time. In many ways, this is the right book, by the right people, at the right place, at the right time. . . . The book is clearly the best compilation of material on storm electricity that exists today. It can be used either as a textbook or as a reference work by specialists and nonspecialists alike."--E. Philip Krider in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society "A similar completeness is not known from any atmospheric chemistry or radar meteorology textbook. [...] [T]his book can be highly recommended both for students, who will benefit from the completeness and actuality of the presented material, and for scientists working in the field of thunderstorm research."--Meteorologische Zeitschrift