The evolution and discharge of electric fields within a thunderstorm (Q1119376)

A 3-dimensional model for the electric field in a thunderstorm is developed. A finite difference approximation method is analyzed. The domain is decomposed into boxes, the partial differential equation is integrated over each box, the divergence theorem is applied, and spatial derivatives in the resulting boundary integrals are approximated by central differences. It is shown that under given conditions, the resulting discretization is unconditionally stable. Max-norm error estimates for the discrete approximation are established. Numerical results are included, showing a good concordance between numerical and experimental data.