Lightning: Principles, Instruments and Applications

Abstract

Lightning is a natural phenomenon that has always produced much impact on humans and their societies, mainly because of its impressive appearance and the threats imposed on life and structures. As one consequence, modern lightning research continues to develop effective tools and procedures suited to recognize severe thunderstorms and to generate reliable alert. During the long time of past lightning investigation, much understanding of the discharge processes has been gathered and efficient detection techniques have been implemented. Today, numerous institutions all over the world deal with unraveling the numerous questions about lightning that have remained open, with much success, but as is typical for research in subjects of natural science, the complexity of the phenomena defies fast and comprehensive clarification. Meanwhile, the many competent research efforts and their impressive results render it impossible to present the gathered knowledge in a single book. Thus, the present monograph is designed to describe in 27 chapters. merely some of the highlights of current research. Moreover, the topics have been selected to elucidate the lightning phenomena that are readily understandable by a general, educated readership, rather than addressing only specialists in the field. Accordingly, a more deeply interested reader is referred to the ample reports in literature. At first,