Charge separation during the fragmentation of rime and frost

In order to determine whether charge transfer during the collision of ice crystals with riming graupel pellets in thunderstorms may be due to the removal of charged growths on the graupel surface, experiments were performed in which an air jet removed forst or pieces of rime from ice surfaces. The results showed that a frost covered or rimed surface charged positively if it was growing by vapour diffusion and negatively if it was evaporating when the air jet fragmented the surface. Other work has shown that similar results are obtained when ice crystals or ice spheres interact with growing or evaporating ice surfaces and so it appears that the charge transfer process is associated with the removal of charged surface features. These results are of relevance to our understanding of the processes of thunderstorm electrification.