Lightning in a Forest (Wild) Fire: Mechanism at the Molecular Level

Chin, See Leang and Guo, Xueliang and Schroeder, Harmut and Xu, Huanbin and Wang, Tie-Jun and Li, Ruxin and Liu, Weiwei (2024) Lightning in a Forest (Wild) Fire: Mechanism at the Molecular Level. Atmospheric and Climate Sciences, 14 (01). pp. 128-135. ISSN 2160-0414

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Abstract

The mechanism of lightning that ignites a forest fire and the lightning that occurs above a forest fire are explained at the molecular level. It is based on two phenomena, namely, internal charge separation inside the atmospheric cloud particles and the existence of a layer of positively charged hydrogen atoms sticking out of the surface of the liquid layer of water on the surface of rimers. Strong turbulence-driven collisions of the ice particles and water droplets with the rimers give rise to breakups of the ice particles and water droplets into positively and negatively charged fragments leading to charge separation. Hot weather in a forest contributes to the updraft of hot and humid air, which follows the same physical/chemical processes of normal lightning proposed and explained recently[1]. Lightning would have a high probability of lighting up and burning the dry biological materials in the ground of the forest, leading to a forest (wild) fire. The burning of trees and other plants would release a lot of heat and moisture together with a lot of smoke particles (aerosols) becoming a strong updraft. The condition for creating lightning is again satisfied which would result in further lightning high above the forest wild fire.

Item Type: Article
Subjects: STM Library > Multidisciplinary
Depositing User: Managing Editor
Date Deposited: 29 Jan 2024 07:52
Last Modified: 29 Jan 2024 07:52
URI: http://open.journal4submit.com/id/eprint/3670

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