Separate luminous structures leading positive leader steps

Abstract

The physics governing the propagation of lightning leaders and long spark leaders is still not well understood. Positive and negative leaders seem to behave differently. Negative leaders develop in a step manner, guided by the separate luminous structures termed space stems and space leaders. Positive leaders, on the other hand, are generally thought to have no separate luminous structure involved in their propagation. However, a separate luminous structure observed in a positive leader discharge had been reported in recent literature, suggesting that positive leaders may similarly do steps to negative leaders under certain conditions. Here we report the observation of the positive leader step led by a separate luminous structure at high humidity in laboratory lightning-like discharges. We also found the streamer-like common zone connecting the primary leader channel with the separate luminous structure, as well as the bi-directional development of the separate luminous structure. We hope that these findings would contribute to a better understanding of the nature underlying positive long spark leaders and lightning leaders.