Why do positive charges go to the top of a cloud?

Air molecules and suspended water droplets collide as they swirl around in the clouds. Warmer air and water droplets rise, carrying charges with them. The result is an excess of positive charge near the cloud tops, and an excess of negative charge in the bottom layers of the clouds.

What is the result when positive charges build up at the top of clouds and negative charges build up at the bottom of clouds?

The initial cause of a lightning strike is a separation of charge within a cloud. Positively charged particles accumulate at the top of the cloud while negatively charged particles concentrate themselves at the bottom of the cloud. Unfortunately, it is currently unknown why this charge separation occurs.

How is a positively charged ice crystal carried to the upper regions of the cloud?

The updraft carries the positively charged ice crystals upward toward the top of the storm cloud. The larger and denser graupel is either suspended in the middle of the thunderstorm cloud or falls toward the lower part of the storm.

What causes the charge separation in clouds?

Lightning occurs when the difference of electric charge between two points builds up to a point where the insulating properties of the air break down. This theory states that the charge separation in clouds occurs due to the collision of ice crystals within the cloud.

What happens when positive and negative charges touch within a cloud?

The knocked off electrons gather near the bottom of the cloud producing a negative charge, while the positively charged droplets rise toward the top of the cloud. As water droplets rise, they encounter colder air temperatures and start to freeze.

Why is Earth positively charged?

It probably because at the inner core of the Earth, the temperature and pressure is so high that the atoms there are ionized. So the inner part of earth is posstively charged. Therefore, its surface is negatively charged.

Why is ice positively charged?

When the hailstones collide with the colder ice crystals, there is a net transfer of positive ions from the warmer hailstones to the colder ice crystals. The hailstones therefore acquire a negative charge, and the ice crystals become positively charged.

Are clouds negatively or positively charged?

The top of the cloud becomes positively charged while the base of the cloud becomes negatively charged.

Are rain clouds positively or negatively charged?

Because electrons carry a negative charge, the result is a storm cloud with a negatively charged base and a positively charged top.

How do positive and negative charges interact?

If a positive charge and a negative charge interact, their forces act in the same direction, from the positive to the negative charge. As a result opposite charges attract each other: The electric field and resulting forces produced by two electrical charges of opposite polarity. The two charges attract each other.