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A short-lived, high amplitude discharge of
electricity that accompanies a cloud-to-ground lightning event. The bright
lightning flash that is visible to the human eye is actually composed of
extremely rapid electric discharges called strokes. The return stoke
follows a downward extending leader, or conductive path of ionized air.
The electrons in the cloud flow down this conductive pathway toward the
surface of the earth. As electrons continually migrate down the path,
electrons remaining higher up on the path in the cloud begin to
consecutively move down the channel to the surface. Since the path of
electron flow is progressively lengthened upward, the discharge of the
elevated electrons high in the cloud to a lower place in the cloud and
then down the pathway to the ground is called the return stroke.
[Journal
of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics, v. 62, Issue 3, p. 169-187]
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