Parametric instability of a conducting liquid drop with respect to its stochastically time-varying self-charge (Q806470)

A very important problem of the theory of thunderstorm electricity is that of the physical mechanism of generation of a linear lightning discharge. In accordance with existing ideas, the linear lightning discharge begins with an intense corona discharge from a group of closely spaced large drops or thawing hailstones. This is accompanied by the formation of a certain volume with a characteristic linear dimension of \(\sim 1 cm\) filled with gas-discharge plasma, whose polarization and development within the intracloud electric field also explain many characteristic features of the initial stage of lightning discharge. However, the physical conditions of ignition of the corona discharge remain unexplained: in fact, the appearance on the large drops of electric charges sufficient to initiate a corona discharge is not very realistic. The quasiconstant intracloud electric field does not exceed \(E_ 0\approx 3\) kV/cm, which is also insufficient to ensure suitable conditions for discharge ignition. Nevertheless, there is another uninvestigated mechanism of ignition of an electric discharge in the neighborhood of a water drop associated with the parametric buildup of instability in the drop with the subsequent emission of highly charged microdroplets, in whose neighborhood a corona discharge could be ignited. In this connection, we will examine the problem of the stability of capillary waves in a spherical drop of radius R with an initial charge Q falling freely in a thundercloud and colliding along its path with much smaller droplets bearing charges of different signs so that its resultant charge varies randomly with time.