Charge and Size of Precipitation Particles

MARTÍNEZ, LUCIA; PEREYRA, RODOLFO GUILLERMO; AVILA, ELDO EDGARDO

Congreso; International Conference on Atmospheric Electricity; 2022

In this work, ground-based observations of the size and electrical charges carried by precipitation particles are presented under the non-inductive mechanism (NIM) hypothesis. The informationcontained in the size, sign and magnitude of individual hydrometeor charges is essential to analyse the microphysical processes involved in the charge separation mechanism, as well as to study the electrical structure of storms and their temporal evolution. Ground measurements were made of the fall velocity (V) and the magnitude and sign of the electric charge (Q) of individual raindrops. With the V data it is possible to obtain the diameters.Time series of the size-charge of individual raindrops from two storms in Córdoba, Argentina are presented. Finally, with the information obtained in the different storms, the correlation between Q and D for raindrops with separate positive and negative charges were analysed.