Re: Relativistic Runaway Breakdown Model for Lightning

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Original poster: "Jim Lux" <jimlux@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>


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From: "Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
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Sent: Thursday, June 02, 2005 10:19 PM
> Also, a comment that not long back, somebody had asked about x-rays or
> gamma rays near TC's.
> A friend at MIT told me last week somebody from this conference came by
the
> Museum Of Science in Boston for the TC there with gear to seek both gamma
> and x-ray and found no trace of either type. However, he then went to a
> Marx generator and he got plenty. It was commented that the issue seemed
> more related to fast initial discharge rather than the quasi steady state
> discharge of TC's.

Yes.. it's known that sufficiently high di/dt discharges can generate xrays,
even in atmospheric pressures. I seem to recall that it has to be something
like more than 1E9 A/sec, but it might be even higher.

There's also a phenomenon called z-pinch that can make xrays, but I don't
know that it can occur at atmospheric pressure.

 I find it interesting that in some of these papers I am
> about to link to, it is noted the energy bursts seem linked to when step
> leaders are formed. I put together a bunch of papers from that conference
> of 2/2005 and zipped them up into one file.
> At sea level, neither radiation goes all that far but at 15 Km, the range
> most think this lightning to gamma is at, the radiation range is more like
> 2.2 Km.
> If the reader is into this subject, good reading can be had within the
zip.
> Most are in PDF format once you unzip it.
> Most are from the conference, a couple are older but related.
> www.hot-streamer.com/mike2004/GAMMA.ZIP
>   Regards,
> Mike
>