Re : Mooie verklaring

Another theory is that opposite charges are driven apart by the above mechanism and energy is stored in the electric field between them. Cloud electrification appears to require strong updrafts which carry water droplets upward, supercooling them to -10 to -20 C. These collide with ice crystals to form a soft ice-water mixture called graupel. The collisions result in a slight positive charge being transferred to ice crystals, and a slight negative charge to the graupel. Updrafts drive lighter ice crystals upwards, causing the cloud top to accumulate increasing positive charge. The heavier negatively charged graupel falls towards the middle and lower portions of the cloud, building up an increasing negative charge. Charge separation and accumulation continue until the electrical potential becomes sufficient to initiate lightning discharges, which occurs when the gathering of positive and negative charges forms a sufficiently strong electric field.

Water vapor plays a key role in lightning production in the atmosphere. From cloud physics, usually, clouds are the real generators of static charge as found in Earth's atmosphere. But the ability, or capacity, of clouds to hold massive amounts of electrical energy is directly related to the amount of water vapor present in the local system.

The amount of water vapor directly controls the permittivity of the air. During times of low humidity, static discharge is quick and easy. During times of higher humidity, fewer static discharges occur. However, permittivity and capacitance[15] work hand in hand to produce the megawatt outputs of lightning.

After a cloud, for instance, has started its way to becoming a lightning generator, atmospheric water vapor acts as a substance (or insulator[16] [17] ) that decreases the ability of the cloud to discharge its electrical energy. Over a certain amount of time, if the cloud continues to generate and store[18] more static electricity[19], the barrier that was created by the atmospheric water vapor will ultimately break down[20] from the stored electrical potential energy. This energy will be released to a locally, opposite[21] charged region in the form of lightning. The strength of each discharge is directly related to the atmospheric permittivity, capacitance, and the source's charge generating ability.[22]