The
Step Ladder
http://www.moonraker.com.au/techni/lightning-marine.htm
The Step Ladder is a term used to
describe the net like characteristic of lightning. The Steps are the
many paths of ionized air used to transfer electricity. The shape of
the lightning is caused by these paths, which can be altered by my
aspects of the air such as air impurities, condensation, and the
overall shape of the electrical field. This shape has
characteristics known as Flux Lines or force lines, which is the path
of electricity, or the path with the least resistance.
http://www.lightningstalker.com/weather/lightningstalker/gallery/spider.html
Photo taken by
David O Stillings
In general the electricity would
initially radiate perpendicular to the source, or the cloud and Earth,
but due to non-uniform shape of clouds the energy leaves the clouds in
the distorted shape that it does.
From the
Earth's surface the objects are reacting to the field of the clouds by
creating positive streamers, which extend toward the charge, but only
to an extent where they do not grow. The connection of the streamers to
the leading end of the charge is left up to the directional path chosen
by the leading electrons. Once the streamer and charge have met, a
conductive path has been made from the cloud to the Earth, that being
Nature's way of neutralizing charge separation.
