A propagative model for simulations of electric fields produced by downward leaders

Abstract

Comparisons of simulated downward negative leaders with experimental measurements are presented in this paper. In order to simplify, the leaders are considered to progress vertically and charge distributions and leader speeds can be adjusted. The results report a good agreement with Cooray’s, Golde’s and Hutler’s proposals. In the case of Dellera’s proposal (LPM) it only agrees for the last 2 km of the leader position. Eriksson’s proposal produced good agreements but closer flash distances are not consistent with the measured lightning flash. The obtained speeds ranged between 1.15􀀁106 m􀀁s-1 to 2.6􀀁104 m􀀁s-1 which are consistent with those reported in literature.