Parameters of Electrostatic Disintegration of Charged Drops Suspended in a Superposition of Electrostatic, Gravitational, and Aerodynamic Fields

On the basis of the principle of the minimal energy dissipation rate in nonequilibrium processes, the characteristic sizes, charges, and values of the Rayleigh parameter of progeny droplets formed at realization of electrostatic instability of the parent drop suspended in a thunderstorm cloud under dynamic conditions of a superposition of aerodynamic, electrostatic, and gravitational fields are calculated. It is found that there is a number of differences in comparison with the same characteristics of disintegration of the charged drop unstable in relation to its own charge in a model situation of a motionless drop: in the quantity of the emitted progeny droplets, in their sizes and charges, and in the trend for variation of all parameters with an increase in the serial number of the progeny droplet. It is found that these droplets are initially unstable in relation to their electric charge and that the degree of their instability grows with an increase in the serial number.