Thunderstorm electrification analysis: The dependence on the temperature-LWC diagram

Abstract

The dependence on liquid water content (LWC) and temperature (T) of the charge transfer, and in particular its sign, during ice crystal-graupel collisions is a matter of controversy. Some of the laboratory measurements do not agree on the general shape of this function, although they agree on the existence of a critical temperature Tr, above which there is one sign and below which the opposite one. In this paper, the authors carry out a numerical study to investigate the behavior of three charging parameterizations in thunderstorm electrification. This study is carried out on one cloud case study, and a limited set of T-LWC values are present. Surprisingly, the general behavior is the same among the three, despite the distinct differences in the charging diagrams. © 1996 American Meteorological Society.