HR: 10:40h
AN: AE52A-02 INVITED [Abstracts]
TI: A Review of Runaway Air Breakdown and its Role in High-Altitude Discharges
AU: * Roussel-Dupre, R A
EM: bobrd@lanl.gov
AF: Los Alamos National Laboratory, Group EES-2, Mail Stop F665, Los Alamos, NM 87545
United States
AU: Symbalisty, E M
EM: esymbalisty@lanl.gov
AF: Los Alamos National Laboratory, Group EES-2, Mail Stop F665, Los Alamos, NM 87545
United States
AU: Triplett, L A
EM: ltriplett@lanl.gov
AF: Los Alamos National Laboratory, Group EES-2, Mail Stop F665, Los Alamos, NM 87545
United States
AU: Gurevich, A
AF: P.N. Lebedev Institute of Physics, Russian Academy of Sciences, 53 Leninsky Prospect, Moscow, 117924
Russian Federation
AU: Zybin, K
AF: P.N. Lebedev Institute of Physics, Russian Academy of Sciences, 53 Leninsky Prospect, Moscow, 117924
Russian Federation
AU: Babich, L
AF: Russian Federal Nuclear Center-VNIIEF, 37 Mira Street, Sarov, 607190
Russian Federation
AU: Kutsyk, I
AF: Russian Federal Nuclear Center-VNIIEF, 37 Mira Street, Sarov, 607190
Russian Federation
AB:
The fundamental physical processes inherent to the relativistic breakdown mechanism known as runaway breakdown are reviewed.
The kinetic theory is described and the most recent calculations for the electron distribution function and the associated
avalanche rates are presented. Given the kinetic results it is possible to develop a set of fluid equations which when
coupled to Maxwell's equations governs the evolution of a discharge driven by external electric fields such as the
quasi-electrostatic fields generated in a high-altitude discharge. Simple analytic expressions that describe the basic
spatial and temporal scales characteristic of a high-altitude runaway discharge are presented along with the results of
detailed 2-D simulations. Precisely how runaway breakdown may manifest itself in the class of discharges known as sprites is
noted.
DE: 7839 Nonlinear phenomena
DE: 6944 Nonlinear phenomena
DE: 2423 Ionization mechanisms
DE: 0342 Middle atmosphere--energy deposition
SC: Atmospheric and Space Electricity [AE]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting