The Electrical Nature of Storms

by Donald R. MacGorman, W. David Rust

Overview

Rapid progress during the last twenty years has created a host of new technologies for studying electrical storms, including lightning mapping systems, new radars, satellite sensors, and new ways of measuring electric field and particle charge. This book explains how these advances have revolutionized our understanding. The books provides substantial background material, making it accessible to a broad scientific audience.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780195073379
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	03/12/1998
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	432
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.40(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

both at the National Severe Storms Laboratory, Oklahoma

Table of Contents

Tutorial: Basic Electricity and Magnetism1. Overview of the Electrical Nature of the Earth's Atmosphere2. Electrified Nonthunderstorm Clouds3. Introduction to the Electrical Nature of Thunderstorms4. Corona and Point Discharge5. Lightning6. Instruments7. Observations of the Electrical Characteristics of Thunderstorms: I. General Characteristics8. Observations of the Electrical Characteristics of Thunderstorms: II. Severe, Winter, and Tropical Storms and Storm Systems9. Numerical Models of Thunderstorm Electrification10. Electrical Effects on Cloud MicrophysicsAppendix A. Selected Symbols and DefinitionsAppendix B. Physical Constants and Conversion FactorsReferencesIndex

Editorial Reviews

"Lightning is among the nation's worst weather hazards, yet even today the processes that electrify clouds are not completely understood. Together, MacGorman and Rust have spent more than 50 years total in research on lightning and storm electricity at the NOAA National Severe Storms Laboratory, and they have been teaching a graduate course on these topics at the University of Oklahoma for more than a decade. This book represents their attempt to condense an enormous body of literature on the electrical nature of storms into a single volume textbook, something that has been sorely needed for some time. In many ways, this is the right book, by the right people, at the right place, at the right time. . . . The book is clearly the best compilation of material on storm electricity that exists today. It can be used either as a textbook or as a reference work by specialists and nonspecialists alike."—E. Philip Krider in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society

From the Publisher