Computed conditions of corona emission from two interacting raindrops

✍ Scribed by Jean-François Georgis; Serge Chauzy; Sylvain Coquillat

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1995
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 947 KB
• Volume: 121
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0035-9009
• DOI: 10.1002/qj.49712152804

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

The conditions of corona emission from two interacting drops located in a vertical ambient field parallel to their line of centres are established by combining the corona experimental results obtained by Dawson (1969) with the distortion model from Georgis et al. (1995). Given the drop shapes and electrical fields at any points on the surface then, thanks to the distortion model, it is possible to calculate the altitude of corona occurrence from a fitting of Dawson's data. Unexpectedly it was found that an increase in the ambient field and/or a decrease in the distance between the two drops is not always equivalent to a lowering of the altitude of the corona occurrence, thus confirming that distortion plays a key part in this highly nonlinear mechanism. Nevertheless, corona emission is now generally possible at quite realistic altitudes in permanent ambient fields provided that the drops are close enough to each other. the mutual approach of the two drops certainly favours corona emission at low altitudes, but it also entails such a reduction in the ambient field for corona onset that conditions may be no longer propitious for corona propagation.