Corona current concept in lightning return-stroke models of engineering type

Abstract

A role of radial corona current in a lightning discharge is discussed in the paper. It is shown that the corona current concept previously introduced by Cooray for lightning return stroke models of distributed-current-source (DCS) type, and later, by Maslowski and Rakov for lumped-current-source (LCS) type models enables to show duality between these two types of models. Further, it is demonstrated that the corona current is useful during consideration of dynamics of the lightning-channel corona sheath. As an example of application of presented approach a relaxation model of charge motion in the corona sheath is analysed together with plots which show the rate of expansion and shrinkage of the lightning corona sheath on both microsecond and millisecond time scales.