Effect of wind on the distribution of the corona discharge ionized field generated from grounded wire during thunderstorms

The properties of corona discharge initiated from a long grounded wire suspended horizontally above the ground with regard to the effect of wind during the charging process of a negative thundercloud and the propagation of a descending downward stepped leader are studied. A two-dimensional (2D), time-dependent model is developed to evaluate the corona discharge ionized field quantitatively. It is found that the corona current increases almost linearly with the increase of the wind speed. The corona current decreases rapidly when the background electric field reaches constant in the absence of wind but not that fast at strong wind. Wind can only affect the outer region of the corona space charge cloud instead of the adjacent region of the grounded wire. Consequently, different wind speeds have no effect on the initiation condition of the streamer discharge of the grounded wire but can affect the development of the connecting upward leader in the space.