Firstly, let's discuss the specific features of the physico-chemical transformations of the lightning storm air in a wide temperature range. In the lightning storm atmosphere nitrogen oxides, ozone and other "combustible" components start to accumulate reaching concentrations in excess of the normal levels (sometimes by several tent olds). Thus, nitrogen oxide is synthesized through -the following process:
(1)
where: the reaction heat effect
relates to standard conditions. Having entered the low-temperature zone,
is "tempered" [15,16] and can react with oxygen and ozone as in the below equations:
(2)
(3)
Under the lightning storm conditions the processes described by the cumulative equation of the below type become significant too:
(4)
The created
dissociates in rain drops and fog particles in the following way:
(5)
It should be noted that
, also a product of the cumulative process, is similarly unstable even at low temperatures and in the liquid phase decomposes into
and
. In addition, there are other known processes of the type:
(6)
(7)increasing the liquid phase conductivity by several orders. The reactions of
and
decomposition in the gaseous phase under the appropriate conditions can generate some amounts of ions as well.