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Unusual plasma formations produced by positive streamers entering the cloud of negatively charged water droplets
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  • Alexander Yu. Kostinskiy,
  • Nikolay A. Bogatov,
  • Vladimir S. Syssoev,
  • Eugene A. Mareev,
  • M. G. Andreev,
  • Marat U. Bulatov,
  • Dmitry I. Sukharevsky,
  • Vladimir A. Rakov
Alexander Yu. Kostinskiy
National Research University Higher School of Economics

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Nikolay A. Bogatov
Institute of Applied Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences
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Vladimir S. Syssoev
High-Voltage Research Center of the All-Russia Institute of Electrical Engineering
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Eugene A. Mareev
Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS)
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M. G. Andreev
National Research University Higher School of Economics
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Marat U. Bulatov
High-Voltage Research Center of the All-Russia Institute of Electrical Engineering
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Dmitry I. Sukharevsky
High-Voltage Research Center of the All-Russia Institute of Electrical Engineering
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Vladimir A. Rakov
University of Florida
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Abstract

Kostinskiy et al. (2015a), using a high-speed infrared (2.5-5.5 μm) camera, discovered the so-called unusual plasma formations (UPFs) in artificial clouds of charged water droplets. UPFs had complex morphology including both streamer-like regions and hot channel segments. They were observed both in the presence and in the absence of hot leader channels developing from the grounded plane toward the cloud. In this paper, which is aimed at revealing the genesis of UPFs, we present two UPFs that occurred inside the initial corona streamer burst of positive polarity emitted from the grounded plane, prior to the formation (or in the absence) of associated hot leader channel. These streamer bursts developed at speeds of 5 to 7 x 10^5 m/s over 1 to 1.5 m in apparently clear air before entering the negatively-charged cloud and producing UPFs at its periphery. Hot channel segments within UPFs were formed in very short times of the order of 1 μs or less. It is not clear if the UPFs were caused solely by the enhanced electric field near the charged cloud boundary or other factors also played a role. Occurrence of UPFs may be a necessary component of any lightning initiation mechanism (Kostinskiy et al., 2020; Iudin et al., 2021).