Runaway breakdown and electrical discharges in thunderstorms

High-altitude electrical discharges associated with thunderstorms and lightning

The purpose of this paper is to introduce electrical discharge phenomena known as transient luminous events above thunderstorms to the lightning protection community. Transient luminous events include the upward electrical discharges from thunderstorms known as starters, jets, and gigantic jets, and electrical discharges initiated in the lower ionosphere such as sprites, halos, and elves. We gi...

Ion runaway in lightning discharges.

Runaway ions can be produced in plasmas with large electric fields, where the accelerating electric force is augmented by the low mean ionic charge due to the imbalance between the number of electrons and ions. Here we derive an expression for the high-energy tail of the ion distribution function in lightning discharges and investigate the energy range that the ions can reach. We also estimate ...

Breakdown behavior in radio-frequency argon discharges

Plasma Recombination in Runaway Discharges in Tokamak TCABR

A new regime of runaway discharges has been observed in the TCABR tokamak. One of the most distinctive features of this regime is the e ect of plasma detachment from the limiter. This experimental fact can only be explained by the volume recombination, which requires a low-temperature plasma. The analysis of the energy and particle balance in the system plasma-relativistic runaway beam in TCABR...

Production of runaway electrons by negative streamer discharges