Udo Lenz wrote: <snip>
Bert Hickman wrote:Although a lossless transmission line model of a leader would have a wave velocity of c, real-world (i.e., lossy) leader channels actually have a measured velocity of about 0.1*c, implying that Sqrt(LC) for long leaders is approximately equal to 10 instead of 1. See Raizer (GDP, section 12.10).I haven't gotten the Raizer book yet. 0.1*c seems extremely fast. Is that for DC arcs?
The 0.1*c figure is the experimentally-measured wave velocity for a disturbance through an established leader, such as the return stroke in lightning or the return current surge when a TC leader connects to a solid ground. The leader tip propagation velocity for a growing leader is considerably slower - by a factor of 10 - 100 depending on tip E-field and divergence of the background E-field.
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