The origin of thunderstorm electrification has long been an unsolved problem in atmospheric physics. Despite a number of simulated laboratory experiments, together with the vast amount of field data collected over the past few decades, our knowledge of how these convective cloud masses get charged still remains sparse at the microphysical level. Sir John Mason in the Bakerian Lecture identified thunderstorm electrification as one of the three leading unsolved problems in cloud physics. He had this to say about the problem: This is, for me, the most intriguing and challenging problem in cloud physics, with a strong incentive to understand one of the most spectacular of natural phenomena, but made all the more interesting by the fact that the search for a continuing solution has led us into a number of rather difficult areas of classical physics, and to a deeper study of the fundamental properties of water and ice. A satisfactory theory must be able to explain all of the observed electrical characteristics of a typical thunderstorm.

Inspec keywords: thunderstorms; atmospheric electricity; clouds

Other keywords: atmospheric physics; Sir John Mason; microphysical level; classical physics; charging; cloud physics; thunderstorm electrification mechanisms; convective cloud masses; Bakerian Lecture; ice; water

Subjects: Atmospheric electricity