Related papers: On the emergence mechanism of carrot sprites
Sprite discharges are electrical discharges that initiate from the lower ionosphere during intense lightning storms, manifesting themselves optically as flashes of light that last a few milliseconds. This study unravels sprite initiation…
Streamers are a generic mode of electric breakdown of large gas volumes. They play a role in the initial stages of sparks and lightning, in technical corona reactors and in high altitude sprite discharges above thunderclouds. Streamers are…
We investigate the emergence of space stems ahead of negative leaders. These are luminous spots that appear ahead of an advancing leader mediating the leader's stepped propagation. We show that space stems start as regions of locally…
This proceedings paper from 2004 contains figures of discharges in different gap lengths at the same potential that are not available elsewhere. The 2004 abstract: The evolution of streamers is known to depend on gas composition and…
We recently have shown that a negative streamer in a sufficiently high homogeneous field can branch spontaneously due to a Laplacian instability, rather than approach a stationary mode of propagation with fixed radius. In our previous…
We introduce the generic structure of a growth model for branched discharge trees that consistently combines a finite channel conductivity with the physical law of charge conservation. It is applicable, e.g., to streamer coronas near tip or…
We use numerical simulations to study the dynamics of surface discharges, which are common in high-voltage engineering. We simulate positive streamer discharges that propagate towards a dielectric surface, attach to it, and then propagate…
Plasma blobs are observed to be weak density enhancements as radially stretched structures emerging from the cusps of quiescent coronal streamers. In this paper, it is suggested that the formation of blobs is a consequence of an intrinsic…
Controlling streamer morphology is important for numerous applications. Up to now, the effect of the voltage rise rate was only studied across a wide range. Here we show that even slight variations in the voltage rise can have significant…
In this review we describe a transient type of gas discharge which is commonly called a streamer discharge, as well as a few related phenomena in pulsed discharges. Streamers are propagating ionization fronts with self-organized field…
We investigate discharge inception in air, in uniform background electric fields above and below the breakdown threshold. We perform 3D particle simulations that include a natural level of background ionization in the form of positive and…
We theoretically study the inception and propagation of positive and negative streamers in CO$_2$. Our study is done in 3D, using a newly formulated kinetic Monte Carlo discharge model where the electrons are described as drifting and…
We study the development of a negative discharge driven by a Marx generator of about 1 MV in an air gap of 1 up to 1.5 meter, at standard temperature and pressure. We show the evolution of the discharge with nanosecond-fast photography…
Context. Propagating streamer blobs could be an important source of disturbances in the solar wind. Direct observations on formation of streamer blobs could be a proxy for understanding the formation of small-scale structures and…
We interpret $\gamma$-ray flares from the Crab Nebula as the signature of turbulence in the pulsar's electromagnetic outflow. Turbulence is triggered upstream by dynamical instability of the wind's oscillating magnetic field, and…
Pictures show that streamer or sprite discharge channels emerging from the same electrode sometimes seem to reconnect or merge though their heads carry electric charge of the same polarity; one might therefore suspect that reconnections are…
Positive and negative streamers are studied in ambient air at 1 bar; they emerge from a needle electrode placed 40 mm above a planar electrode. The amplitudes of the applied voltage pulses range from 5 to 96 kV; most pulses have rise times…
Previous studies of streamer discharge branching mechanisms have mainly been generative other than predictive. To predict or even control branching, a reliable connection between experimental conditions and streamer branching needs to be…
Streamer discharges are the primary mode of electric breakdown of air in lightning and high voltage technology. Streamer channels branch many times, which determines the developing tree-like discharge structure. Understanding these branched…
We simulate short positive and negative streamers in air at standard temperature and pressure. They evolve in homogeneous electric fields or emerge from needle electrodes with voltages of 10 to 20 kV. The streamer velocity at given streamer…