ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the techniques for artificially triggering lightning and reviews the nature of artificially triggered lightning. Artificial triggering of lightning was realized using techniques involving a small rocket with a conductive ground wire. The electric field at the tip of a rocket grows as the rocket ascends. The electric field concentration at the tip of a rocket is gradually intensified as the rocket altitude is higher, so that the corona discharge is built up during the rocket ascent. The corona current is composed of small pulses, and when the average current reaches several milliamperes, an upward leader begins to develop from the tip of the rocket. The characteristics of the leader depend on the electrical polarity of the cloud. The positive leader is followed by a downward dart leader from the cloud along the upward leader channel; then the return stroke propagates upward with a sharp large current pulse.
