Instructor: Dr.

Rabia Shakoor

Group Members:
Abdur Rahman

Presentation Topic:
Lightning and Thunderstorm
Lightning
 Lightning is a discharge of visible electricity.
 It occurs when a region of a cloud acquires an excess electrical charge
, either positive or negative, that is sufficient to break down the 
resistance of air.
 A single stroke of lightning can heat the air around it to 30,000°C.
Formation of Ions
 In clouds ice crystal are form from water droplet due to low temperature.
 When these ice crystal are crash into each other then electron are off
some ice crystal.
 This separate positive (+) and negative (-) charges of cloud.
 The top of the cloud become positively charged while the base of the
cloud become negatively charged.
Figure

Figure 1
Lightning Production
 Negative charges at the base of the cloud induces positive charges
on the ground below.
 As a result of this a potential difference is created across the
cloud-to-ground gap
 When voltage is reaches to certain strength, a channel known as
stepped leader is formed it allows electrons to move from the
cloud to ground.
 As it near the ground, a positively charged streamer fires upward
from the ground to connect with it.
 Streamer are most often initiated from tall objects on the ground
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5 6
Lightning’s partner
 Temperature in the narrow lightning channel reach about 30,000°C.
 The surrounding air is rapidly heated, causing it to expand violently
at a rate faster than the speed of sound.
  At about 10 m out from the channel, it becomes an ordinary sound
wave called thunder.
Causes of lightning
 As warm air rises it cools and condenses forming small droplets of
water.
 If there is enough instability in the air the updraft of warm air and
the water vapor form a cloud.
 As the warm air continues to rise, the water droplets combine to
create larger droplets which freeze to form ice crystals.
 These crystal in cloud flow with turbulent air and eject electron by
crash into each other.
 As a result of this positive charge layer is form at top and negative
charge layer is form at the bottom of cloud.
Voltage and Current Level of Lightning
 A typical lightning flash is about 300 million Volts and about
30,000 Amps.
 The entire process is very rapid
 The leader stroke reaches the ground in about 30 milliseconds.
 The return stroke reaches the center of the cloud in about 100
microsecond.
Lightning Rod
 A lightning rod is a metal rod mounted on a structure and
intended to protect the structure from a lightning strike.
 If lightning hits the structure, it will preferentially strike the rod
and be conducted to ground through a wire, instead of passing
through the structure
 Lightning rods are also called finials, air terminals, or strike
termination devices.
Figure 7
Thank You