Thunderstorm electrification - inductive or non-inductive?

Abstract

Most of the precipitation related theories on charge generation in thunderstorms fall into one of two categories: the inductive or polarization mechanism initiated by the ambient fair-weather field, and the non-inductive mechanism connected with certain electrochemical or thermoelectric particle characteristics. Our numerical study addresses the question of which mechanism gives more realistic results with regard to charge distribution and field strength and what effect a combination of the two processes produces. The investigation is a first attempt using a simplified model.-from Authors