Chuck, It depends on the part of the cloud. The most common thundercloud has one negative pole and one positive pole. The ground-to-cloud bolt goes between the negative part of the cloud and the positive charge sent out by objects on the ground as the negative package approaches the ground.
Leaving what I learned in school and going further with help from a magazine, I want to correct "up-down depends on balance in charge" (obviously misinformed in school): The cloud-to-ground thundercloud is a three-part cloud... positive-negative-positive. A cloud-to-ground bolt is simply the exact opposite. It goes between the upper positive charged part of the cloud down to the negative ground. TOTALLY it's less common than the ground-to-cloud since it needs to be closer to the ground (so they are more common in places with higher altitude). /Nick -----Ursprungligt meddelande----- Från: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] För Chuck Alexander Skickat: den 11 juli 2007 16:27 Till: [email protected] Ämne: Re: [VFB] Boating Safety Question Nick: Yesterday, we were going to the library, and on the way we were hit by a severe thunderstorm... The charge in the air makes the hair on your arms stand up..I didn't understand all you said LOL (I'm old don't ya know) but electricity if is the flow of electrons, flowing from the negative to the positive right???? So, depending on where the positive charge is ie the earth, or in the air, is the direction the lightening bolt will travel??? Chuck ----- Original Message ----- From: "Niclas Runarsson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, July 10, 2007 5:50 PM Subject: Re: [VFB] Boating Safety Question The lightning bolt is a single DC hit. It goes from one side to the other with the purpose to equalize the difference in charge. If the sides aren't equalized after it, another one will follow the same path, but it's still coming from the same direction. Up or down is only depending on the balance of the charge. This ion trail is a very small charge and isn't visible to the eye (and can definitely not zap something out of your hand). It's searching for the other side, leaving a path of electrons (the trail). When reached, the positive charged bolt follows this path, picking up the electrons on it's way from plus to minus. This is why the lightning bolts tend to have "branches" from the sides. In its search, the negative charge travels through the ways with lowest resistance. If this way splits, then so does also the search. But even though the new low resistance ways maybe don't lead anywhere, they will still be full of electrons, which the bolt will pick up when it travels through the "highway". The bolt can be seen as a picture of the entire search. The feeling you had about having static electricity everywhere, was probably related to trails though. The searching ion trailer is met by trailers rising from the other side... and it's when these find eachother and shake hands that the way for the bolt is finalized. Having this feeling of static electricity should be taken seriously, as this probably means that you're sending out these meeting trails. If you are the tallest object sending them out, you might get burned. /Nick -----Ursprungligt meddelande----- Från: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] För DonO Skickat: den 10 juli 2007 22:50 Till: [email protected] Ämne: Re: [VFB] Boating Safety Question Nick, Lightning is AC/DC- it goes both ways. The vast majority if strikes here are from air to ground, then within the storm (not reaching ground), then from ground to air. Out west we get thunderheads of incredible height, bringing hail the size of baseballs, and hundreds of lightning strikes. I got caught out once in prairie-land at a trout lake. Storm was coming and everyhthing around us seemed to be filled with static electricity. I tried to drop my rod from the side of the truck and an arc jumped out 4" and zapped the tar out of my hand. I have always wondered if this was the precursor to a real strike, them little ions telling the bolt which was the easiest way. DonO ----- Original Message ----- From: "Niclas Runarsson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, July 10, 2007 9:31 AM Subject: Re: [VFB] Boating Safety Question "Lightning is an arc that's looking for the path of least resistance to ground. Thus, it looks for a conductor that offers less resistance than air." Actually, the lightning itself is a lazy guy, as it doesn't look for anything. It's just following an Ion trail (lower resistance than air), that has already found the easiest way and "rolled out the red carpet" for him... coming from the opposite direction. Nick -- No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.476 / Virus Database: 269.10.2/893 - Release Date: 7/9/2007 5:22 PM -- No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.476 / Virus Database: 269.10.2/893 - Release Date: 7/9/2007 5:22 PM
