Electric Clouds

[saturnine]

http://thunderbolts.info/tpod/2009/arch ... clouds.htm

The electromagnetic field beneath a thunderstorm increases (up to 10,000 volts per meter) because it acts like a capacitor, storing energy from the surrounding environment. Observations have shown that a "wind" of charged particles blows toward the developing storm, which could be interpreted as a current flowing into the base of the clouds. The surrounding air is pulled along with the current flow and creates the powerful updrafts that sometimes rise into the stratosphere.

Just a thought, might wind in general be caused by electromagnetic forces rather than mechanical forces?

[Steve Smith]

I seriously doubt it. It goes back to fluid dynamic interactions, as discussed on another thread, as well as thermal variations in atmospheric layers.

The Sun heats the Earth non-uniformly. Wherever there's a heat sink, there's a hot region that flows into it. Atmospheric pressure is also related, since high pressure regions flow into low pressure regions.

[mharratsc]

But our planet uses our excellently conductive atmosphere (as far as atmospheres go) to equalize it's charge with the surrounding solar plasma. This is where lightning, sprites, etc come in. However, if this is occurring, so is ionization. A TPOD I read also talked about how this occurs with dust off the Sahara Desert.

If ionization is occurring, that means air molecules are obeying electrodynamic laws in addition to any hydrodynamic/thermodynamic ones. This would account for storm winds, radical pressure changes, etc. Think about it- if an area creates a circuit between the Earth's surface and the upper atmosphere, then ionized air particles would travel opposite the current flow. If this direction of flow were 'lifting' the air towards the upper atmosphere it would compensate for gravity and thereby reduce the barometric pressure in that area. This, in addition to the 'wind' rushing towards the riser column.

I think there is more going on than meets the eye, and it's high time we- in our scientific glory- started investigating some of it

[Tzunamii]

http://thunderbolts.info/tpod/2009/arch ... clouds.htm

The electromagnetic field beneath a thunderstorm increases (up to 10,000 volts per meter) because it acts like a capacitor, storing energy from the surrounding environment. Observations have shown that a "wind" of charged particles blows toward the developing storm, which could be interpreted as a current flowing into the base of the clouds. The surrounding air is pulled along with the current flow and creates the powerful updrafts that sometimes rise into the stratosphere.

Just a thought, might wind in general be caused by electromagnetic forces rather than mechanical forces?

I'm most inclined to think that its a combination of both, with the most influence leaning on the EM.
Especially after the planet wide dust storms on silly thin atmosphere Mars.