%0 Journal Article
%T Lightning in a Forest (Wild) Fire: Mechanism at the Molecular Level
%A See Leang Chin
%A Xueliang Guo
%A Harmut Schroeder
%A Huanbin Xu
%A Tie-Jun Wang
%A Ruxin Li
%A Weiwei Liu
%J Atmospheric and Climate Sciences
%P 128-135
%@ 2160-0422
%D 2024
%I Scientific Research Publishing
%R 10.4236/acs.2024.141008
%X The mechanism of lightning
that ignites a forest fire and the lightning that occurs above a forest fire
are explained at the molecular level. It is based on two phenomena, namely,
internal charge separation inside the atmospheric cloud particles and the existence
of a layer of positively charged hydrogen atoms sticking out of the surface of
the liquid layer of water on the surface of rimers. Strong turbulence-driven
collisions of the ice particles and water droplets with the rimers give rise to
breakups of the ice particles and water droplets into positively and negatively
charged fragments leading to charge separation. Hot weather in a forest
contributes to the updraft of hot and humid air, which follows the same
physical/chemical processes of normal lightning proposed and explained recently<span style=\"font-family:Verdana;\">[1]</span><span></span><span></span><span></span><span style=\"font-family:Verdana;\">. Lightning would have a high probability of lighting up and burning the
dry biological materials in the ground of the forest, leading to a forest
(wild) fire. The burning of trees and other plants would release a lot of heat
and moisture together with a lot of smoke particles (aerosols) becoming a
strong updraft. The condition for creating lightning is again satisfied which
would result in further lightning high above the forest wild fire.</span>
%K Forest Wild Fire
%K Lightning
%K Molecular Level
%U http://www.scirp.org/journal/PaperInformation.aspx?PaperID=130588