Re: How do clouds get electric charge?

From: FrankH (franklinhu_at_yahoo.com)
Date: 09/28/04 

Date: 28 Sep 2004 10:16:47 -0700

Pavel Pokorny <Pavel.Pokorny@vscht.REMOVEME.cz> wrote in message news:<cim35r$ur3$1@ns.felk.cvut.cz>...
> Dear physics friends
>
> can you tell me, please, how atmospheric clouds get electric charge?
>
> Thanks

Seems that there is no officially accepted answer to this question. So
at this point, it is all theories and guesses. My own opinion is that
charges get separated in thunderclouds due to all the different
particles in motion. The real question is why all the negative charges
collect at the bottom and all the positive charges collect at top.
There appears to be no reason why they should separate or why it
couldn't be arranged the other way around. It is often shown that the
ground is positively charged. If this were the case, then all the
negative charges would be attracted to the bottom of the cloud and all
positive charges repelled to the top. This causes a huge charge
differential to build up until it eventually discharges through a
lighting strike. Thats a simple explanation in my opinion.

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