China Naming Network - Weather knowledge - How are wind, rain and lightning formed? What are the forms of wind and rain? Please tell me.

How are wind, rain and lightning formed? What are the forms of wind and rain? Please tell me.

The formation of wind, rain and lightning

First, the modern explanation of the causes of wind and rain

At present, the causes of wind are generally explained as follows: first, the air thermal convection caused by the sun heating the ground; Then because the gas with high temperature expands, the gas with low density contracts, and the gas with low temperature has high density, there will be a horizontal pressure gradient force between cold air and warm air. Under the action of horizontal pressure gradient force, high-pressure cold air will flow into low-pressure warm air, thus forming wind. In addition, there are the effects of the earth's rotation and the tidal force of celestial bodies.

However, it seems that this mechanism can only explain some smooth and weak small winds and breezes, but can't explain strong winds such as typhoons, tornadoes, hurricanes and squalls. On the one hand, the vortex characteristics of typhoons and tornadoes are difficult to be explained by "pressure gradient force" or "thermal convection". On the other hand, their violent degree, huge wind speed and so-called squall line explosive force, the maximum wind speed on the ocean can generally reach 60 ~ 70 m/s, and typhoons with the maximum wind speed of 1 10 m/s were observed. "[1] It goes without saying that" thermal convection "and" horizontal pressure gradient force "are not enough to produce such a strong wind. Because people know that even water. When air is heated, it is like smoke from a chimney. Although it is baked at a high temperature of several hundred degrees or even thousands of degrees, its moving speed is often not very intense. Needless to say, the temperature of the lower atmosphere caused by solar radiation is often only tens of degrees, and the temperature difference is not very large, which is not enough to cause very violent strong winds like hurricanes, typhoons and squalls.

As for the causes of rain and snow, modern science explains that rain and snow are caused by the evaporation of water in oceans, rivers and lakes by the sun entering the atmosphere. When the sun heats the ground, the air convection rises, and the air containing water vapor enters the high altitude. When it condenses, it forms a cloud, and the cloud particles collide and grow up, forming rain and snow.

However, this theory encountered great difficulties in explaining mild light rain, and could not explain special meteorological phenomena such as heavy rain and huge hail.

The first question is: can the evaporated water exist as water molecules for a long time under the scorching sun and in the dry and hot air? Because the evaporated water will not condense into water immediately when it goes straight to the sky, but it will take a long time. Strong sunlight and cosmic rays can ionize air, and also dissociate and ionize water molecules. It is a serious problem how many evaporated water molecules can exist in the form of water molecules after floating in dry and hot air for several days or dozens of days.

Obviously, the evaporated water molecules are bombarded by the solar photon "shell" on the motion path in the atmosphere, especially in the summer when the sun is in direct sunlight. It may not be long before a large part of water molecules will be dissociated into oxygen atoms and hydrogen atoms, and some will be ionized into oxygen ions and hydrogen ions-high-energy photons and other high-energy particles from the sun are enough to make water molecules fall apart. The longer the water vapor moves in the atmosphere,

The second problem faced by the theory of moist air condensation into rain is that some thunderstorm clouds are warm clouds according to observations in tropical areas. [2] "The theory cannot explain the warm cloud precipitation process that often occurs in nature." [3] You say it condenses into rain, but warm clouds can rain. So scholars have to find some new theories to explain warm cloud rainfall.

Moreover, people have long noticed that "it is a very difficult process for cloud droplets to form from atmospheric condensation nuclei and grow into raindrops." Take convective cloud as an example, its droplet radius is generally10μ m. If the size of atmospheric condensation nucleus is calculated as 0. 1μm, when it grows from a condensation nucleus, its volume will increase by one million times. For convective cloud precipitation, the raindrop radius is generally1μ m. When a cloud drop grows into a raindrop, its volume will increase by one million times. For the initial condensed nuclei, it will increase to 10 12 times (trillion times). In the atmosphere, this process is completed in a short time (for convective precipitation, it is a shower). Therefore, this is indeed a very amazing and rapid process. [3]

The view that wet air rises into clouds by convection cannot explain the mechanism of heavy rain and torrential rain in particular-those heavy rains, "downpours" and "pouring rains" that have rained hundreds or even thousands of millimeters in a few hours or even an hour, how much volume of "wet air" needs to rise and condense at such a fast speed! And this requires an efficient "refrigerator" in the sky! Otherwise, humid air can't quickly condense into rain. In the process of rainfall, especially in the process of downpour, highly dense raindrops will greatly hinder the air from rising, making it difficult for the air to rise quickly. Besides, where did you get so much humid air on the ground at once? If it is transported by sea, what is the transportation speed? Why doesn't humid air condense into rain over the ocean?

More importantly, the experimental study proves that "the supersaturation of water needs to reach 320% for uniform nucleation, while the supersaturation in the actual atmosphere rarely reaches 1%." [4] What a huge gap! Although people have to interpret "water vapor condensation" as "there are always a considerable number of condensation nuclei in the atmosphere", "in principle" it is also necessary to have a high enough water vapor supersaturation. Unfortunately, the actual atmosphere cannot satisfy such high water vapor supersaturation.

People have long noticed that "it is not enough to cause heavy rain only by the rise and condensation of water vapor in the air column." Take the rainstorm in Zhuang Lin, Henan Province in August 1975 as an example. On that day, the precipitable water in the air column near Zhuang Lin was 80 mm, while the 24-hour rainfall was 1060 mm, which was 3.3 times that of the former. For example, during the rainstorm in Sichuan in July, the 24-hour rainfall at Longquanyi Station in Chengdu was 3 14 mm, while the precipitable water in the atmosphere was only 70 mm (13), the former was 4.5 times that of the latter. [5]

Therefore, "so far, the formation mechanism of heavy rain is not completely clear, especially the cause of heavy rain, which needs detailed analysis and research." [5]

If the insufficient water vapor is transported from a distance, it needs a high transport speed, which will inevitably lead to strong winds (and the transported water vapor must be close to the ground to rise convectively), and the strong winds will blow away the cumulonimbus clouds. This is a serious contradiction. Everyone has this experience. When there is a rainstorm, the air is very stable and there is basically no wind. The windy rain soon stops and it is sunny again.

The existing theories can't explain the causes of hail, especially the huge hail, because "the diameter of hail that will cause disasters on the ground should be more than 5 mm, and considering that it will melt through the positive temperature zone with a thickness of more than 2 ~ 4 kilometers (the temperature is greater than 0℃) when landing, the diameter of hail in the cloud should be greater than 1 cm. In order to support hail of this size, there must be a strong updraft above 15 m/s in the cloud (equivalent to 7 winds). [1] And if the hail is as big as an egg or a fist, how strong the updraft is and how long will it take to grow? Moreover, theoretical calculation and experiments show that to grow hail with a diameter of 1cm from hail embryos within ten minutes, the water content in the cloud should be at least greater than 10g/m3, and [1] even hail as big as eggs and fists.

However, the maximum water content in cumulonimbus clouds often reaches 0.45 ~ 1.0g/m3 [6].

The fact is, some rare hailstones are shocking enough. For example, the version of Shenbao 1923 10 reported an unprecedented hail in northern Shaanxi, which said: When the hail fell, it was only beans at first, then eggs, and then fists, which caused harm to people and animals in Tianhe.

On the eightieth page of Volume II of Yang Guang Miscellanies by Liu Xianting in the Qing Dynasty, he wrote: "It's too white, ... the ground is high and cold, invading people, and there is a lot of hail. Some clouds stood up and carved hail, while others were as big as houses. If they see clouds of different colors on the road, they will run to the rocks to hide. If they leave late or are unfamiliar with the path, most of them will be hail injuries.

On page 7 14, Fu's Book Collection in Ming Dynasty, Volume 28, Zhi Zhi of Si Tian, reads: "In July of the eighth year of Ming Chenghua, it rained like cattle in Longzhou, and it disappeared in May and June." On page 7 17, it reads: "In the first year of Chongzhen, the heavy rain and hail in Shanxi, like elephants, persisted for months." Daoguang Guangdong. "

Zhou Mi's "Historical Records of the Gods" records: "At the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China, Yang Ting said that God would bless her and spent the summer in Pengcheng at the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China. The rain and hail are very heavy. Suddenly, she heard a huge earthquake, and the next hail was in the street, as high as a temple building. ........................................................................................

For example, cows are like elephants, high above the temple buildings and so on. How long does it take for the huge hail surrounded by ten people to grow up and how much "airflow" does it need to support it?

In addition, according to the mechanism of evaporation-condensation into rain, we can only think that there have been marine lakes and rivers since the birth of the earth, and this evaporation-rainfall cycle has been repeated for billions of years. If there were no oceans, lakes and rivers at the beginning of the earth's birth, water would not evaporate and it would not rain, which is obviously unrealistic. The water on the earth is a process from scratch, from less to more. Mechanism of evaporation-condensation into rain.

It is true that some of the water in the evaporated marine lakes and rivers may eventually return to the ground in the form of water, but it may go through the cycle process of evaporation → steam → hydrogen and oxygen (or hydrogen and oxygen atoms) → recombination of hydrogen ions and oxygen ions → rainfall, instead of the simple cycle process of evaporation → steam condensation → rainfall. Of course, it is not excluded that a very small part of water has gone through such a simple process, but it may not be.

As for the cause of lightning, the existing theory thinks that it is due to some "electrification mechanism" that leads to the continuous separation of positive and negative charges in the cloud. When the electric field in the center of positive and negative charges reaches a certain intensity, it will break through the air to produce lightning, which will make the air vibrate to form lightning.

In the past century, many researchers have put forward many theories and hypotheses about how to generate and separate charges in the cloud, such as ion selective capture charging, ion diffusion charging, polarization charging, water droplet breaking charging, convection driving mechanism, water freezing and melting charging, ice crystal collision and rupture charging and so on. [8] But these mechanisms are often applicable to all cumulonimbus clouds, and it is difficult to explain why there is some rainfall or snowfall.

At the same time, because lightning is an energy release process, as its inverse process, "charged in the cloud" must have corresponding energy input, and the existing mechanism can not provide such energy input.

The existing electrification theory cannot explain this rare and peculiar lightning phenomenon. For example, "Dali County Records of the Republic of China" records: "On June 22, when the cock crowed, it was as dark as ink, and the lightning flashed. If it fell from the sky to the ground, the thunder rumbled like a cycle, and it was impossible to tell the beginning and the end. It stopped two hours later."

193 1 Journal of American Meteorological Society, Volume 12, Page 130, published the strangest lightning: 1927, 10 3, the famous German meteorologist Dr. Walter Knoch was riding a steamboat along the Paraguay River in South America. ..... There was no rain before and during the electric storm. At 7 o'clock in the afternoon, without warning, suddenly the whole sky began to explode. Dr. Nock said: Even if you want to roughly calculate the number of flashes, I'm afraid it's impossible ... This spectacular scene lasted for several hours, and there was no thunder ... It suddenly thundered at midnight 1 30 and lasted until 4 am. The last lightning was seen behind the steamboat at 8 am.

1August 993 13 China Science Report "A snowstorm on the east coast of the United States in mid-March this year produced about 59,000 lightning strikes. [9]

Any existing electrification mechanism is not enough to explain why there is such a high electrification efficiency in the cloud (or atmosphere) and huge energy can be accumulated in a very short time.

If the basic understanding of a phenomenon is wrong, then it is difficult to produce a correct result based on this error.

Second, wind, rain and lightning may be the real causes.

So, what may be the real cause of wind, rain and lightning? As we know, atmospheric science divides the atmosphere into several layers, starting from the ground: troposphere, stratosphere and mesosphere, with the thermosphere, that is, ionosphere, and the magnetosphere above. The ionosphere and magnetosphere are mainly composed of charged particles (electrons, protons, various atomic ions and molecular ions). But this is only artificial stratification, and there is no clear boundary between the two.

People have realized that solar radiation heating the ground will cause air convection from bottom to top, but not enough attention has been paid to the fact that solar energy actually enters the atmosphere from the top of the atmosphere-the magnetosphere and ionosphere (from top to bottom). Moreover, the energy of the "primitive" solar rays entering the upper atmosphere is much stronger than the energy that reaches the ground after passing through the atmosphere and being absorbed in large quantities. The heating of the upper atmosphere by the sun can also make the upper atmosphere (magnetosphere and ionosphere) convection to the lower atmosphere (see below for relevant evidence). The plasma in the ionosphere is heated by the sun from top to bottom and flows to the lower atmosphere. Because of the low ionization degree and weak electric field in the lower atmosphere, the recombination rate of the plasma is greater than the ionization rate, resulting in monomer.

Why can the plasma in the ionosphere combine with the airflow flowing to the lower atmosphere to produce wind, rain and lightning?

First of all, we need to introduce the basic concept of plasma: plasma is a quasi-neutral gas composed of charged particles and neutral particles, showing collective behavior. [10] Moreover, "as long as 0. 1% of molecules in the gas are ionized, it already has the nature of plasma." [1 1] That is to say, plasma.

According to plasma physics, except in the case of strong electric field and high energy, plasma recombination mainly shows separation recombination (recombination into atomic ions or molecular ions). Generally speaking, plasma will mainly recombine into neutral particles. A large number of neutral particles will combine to form or gas, or liquid, or solid matter. Therefore, it can be predicted that there are four products of plasma recombination: 1. 2. Liquid substances; 3. Solid matter; 4. Plasma

Because the recombination process is the inverse process of ionization, the energy absorbed by the material during ionization will be released in the recombination process, so the recombination process is an energy release process, and a lot of energy will be released in this process.

When plasma recombines into gas (hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen and other gas substances), it will increase air, which may be the source of air origin. At the same time, the huge energy released will violently promote air movement and form storms (typhoons, tornadoes, hurricanes, strong winds, etc.). ). When the plasma is recombined into gas alone, strong wind will be formed, and the phenomenon of "dry thunder, no rain" may occur.

When plasma is recombined into liquid (water or other organic or inorganic liquids such as blood rain, acid rain, black rain, etc. ), rainfall is formed. The phenomenon shows that this process is often divided into two processes: the first process is plasma monomer recombination (one or several pairs of positive and negative ions recombination), which is a random recombination, and the result of recombination is the formation of clouds and fog; The second process is: due to the incomplete recombination of monomers, the cloud particles after recombination are still positively or negatively charged, forming an electric field. After a certain period of evolution, the electric field gradually forms a positive charge center and a negative charge center, and the positive charge center and the negative charge center interact collectively under the action of the electric field coulomb force. When the electric field reaches a certain condition, plasma collective recombination will occur (this process includes chemical processes, specifically specific chemical reactions under plasma conditions), and the rate of collective recombination is extremely high, which can instantly form raindrops, snowflakes and hail. In some special cases, plasma is often directly recombined without monomer recombination, thus forming the spectacle of "clear sky and heavy rain", which may also be the origin of water in the earth and marine lakes and rivers.

The violent recombination process occurs suddenly after the recombination rate exceeds the critical point of ionization rate, so a sudden storm will form.

With regard to the understanding of the recombination of space plasma into water, scholars in the former Soviet Union have also suggested that the solar wind brings particles composed of heavy particles (protons) into the atmosphere, and these particles combine with electrons in the atmosphere to become hydrogen and oxygen atoms and form molecules. Firstly, OH and HO2 are formed. When they react with each other or hydrogen alone, water molecules are generated and heat is released.

Oh+HH2O (16 calories/mol)

Oh+H2O 2+H2O(70.8 calories/mol) [12]

When plasma recombines into solids, hail, sandstorm, pebbles, gravel, etc. This may be the origin of soil and desert.

The results of plasma recombination are not necessarily neutral particles. At the same time, due to the violent release of energy, some plasma will be formed in the recombination process, and some neutral particles will be re-ionized into plasma, so that this process will evolve circularly, and storms, rainstorms and sandstorms will last for a long time. The process of recombination into plasma is called separation and recombination.

Plasma recombination is often combined into gas, liquid, solid and plasma at the same time. For example, during a typhoon, there are both strong winds and heavy rains, and sometimes the rain is mixed with hail and dust. But under some special conditions, it often combines into gas (storm) and liquid (rain, etc.). ) and solids (snow, graupel, hail, sandstorm, etc. ). Space plasma.

Lightning is essentially a compound with radiation. Positive ions absorb an electron into the excited atom, and at the same time emit photons to take away the remaining energy, namely:

A++e→A*+hυ ( 1)

This process is the main recombination process in thin plasma, so it is very important for astronomical plasma.

In addition, there is the recombination of three-particle collisions, in which a positive ion collides with two electrons at the same time, one of which combines with the ion to form an excited atom, and the other electron takes away the remaining energy, namely:

A++e+e→A*+e. (2)

It is the main compound form in dense plasma. (It obviously exists in lightning, so a strong current will be observed when the wire is connected to the lightning zone. )

The third case is dissociation and recombination. A positively charged molecular ion absorbs an electron and becomes an excited molecule. This molecule is very unstable. It dissociates almost immediately into an excited atom and a neutral atom, namely:

(AB)++e→(AB)* →A*+B. (3)

Wherein residual energy is converted into kinetic energy of dissociated fragments; This compound form often appears in the ionosphere. [13] This process converts molecular ions into atoms, which are further ionized into positive ions, electrons or protons and electrons by solar radiation and cosmic rays.

That is to say, lightning is not only the breakdown discharge of positive and negative charge centers to air after the electric field reaches a certain intensity, but also the radiation recombination of positive and negative ions after reaching a certain condition. It is very important to realize this. Lightning is not only an electrical phenomenon, but also a collective recombination process of space plasma, and the electrical (magnetic) phenomenon is only its external manifestation. Especially, the concept of "neutralization of positive and negative charges" has caused serious misleading. People mistakenly think that both positive and negative charges seem to disappear after neutralization. In fact, although the charged particles (charges) in the cloud are reduced after lightning, the same amount of neutral substances (particles) are produced. This very important result has been ignored for a long time.

At present, human beings have had a preliminary understanding and practical observation of neutral substances produced by lightning, such as the study and observation of nitrogen oxides (NOX) produced by lightning.

Zhou et al. observed nitrogen oxides produced by natural lightning in Datong county, Qinghai province by using nitrogen oxides analyzer and atmospheric average electric field instrument. The analysis results show that a large number of nitrogen oxides will be produced in thunderstorm weather ... In thunderstorm weather, the number of lightning and the average volume mixing ratio of NOX are the same, and the peak value is produced by lightning. [14] Similar observation results confirm that lightning (plasma) is the most important factor in thunderstorm weather.

The so-called spherical lightning may naturally reach a special electric field condition in a plasma recombination unit, which makes the ionization rate and recombination rate of plasma close to the equilibrium point (the recombination rate is still slightly higher than the ionization rate), so the recombination rate is low, so the plasma recombination phenomenon can be maintained for a certain period of time.

This view is actually very consistent with the existing theory, but the existing understanding ignores some important details, which leads to the difference in understanding. People often interpret lightning as the result of "neutralization" of positive and negative charges in clouds. Obviously, the so-called "charge" is not empty, but always carried by ions (including electrons). Therefore, lightning is described as "neutralization of positive and negative charges", which will make people mistakenly think that positive and negative charges will disappear after neutralization. The correct description should be: lightning is a composite process of positive and negative ions (plasma). The complex "charges" (ions) did not disappear, but became neutral particles. So every time lightning strikes, a new neutral substance must be "made". This substance can be gas (air supplement) or liquid (rain)

The modern sources of space plasma are mainly the ionization and dissociation of air and surface substances by solar radiation and cosmic ray radiation. In addition, in volcanic eruptions and strong earthquakes, surface rocks and soil will also be ionized due to the release of huge energy. When a volcano erupts, the degree of magma ionization is very high, and some substances such as water vapor, smoke dust and volcanic ash are also ionized. Therefore, when a volcano erupts, a large number of elemental ions will enter the atmosphere. In a strong earthquake, due to the release of huge energy, the so-called "soil liquefaction" occurred, forming an earthquake lake. In this process, a large amount of soil or rocks may also be ionized. A part of ionized element ions will enter the atmosphere and recombine into dust (forming soil), pebbles, gravel and so on under suitable electric field conditions.

Solar energy constantly ionizes the earth's materials, and the ionized plasma constantly recombines, resulting in air, water, soil and so on.

Every typhoon, hurricane, tornado, etc. New air will be added to the atmosphere. Without this anytime and anywhere supplement, the atmosphere may not only be generated, but even if it has already formed, it has already dissipated.

Every time it rains, snows, etc. New water will be added to the rivers, lakes and oceans of the earth. Without this constant supplement, the ocean may not only be produced, but even if it has already formed, it has already evaporated and dried up.

Every sandstorm, the dust mixed in the rain is gradually thickening the soil. Without this constant sprinkling, the soil may not appear, and even if it does, it will soon be washed into the ocean by rain.

In this way, the substances on the earth are constantly undergoing metabolism and circulation, thus presenting a fantastic and colorful world.