I'm happy to answer your questions. Just be advised that EM tornado theory is unconventional. Some scientists consider it to be science fiction. I, of course, think that they're wrong. :) But it shouldn't be presented to any audience, or in any manner, where it is not understood that this work is fully outside the mainstream of the existing meteorological science.

 

As concerns the time it takes for ionization to develop, we know that in less than 20 minutes from the time the thunderstorm achieves full height, golfball-size hailstones can develop. At that point, they have gone back and forth across the freezing line (~4 km above the ground) at least 10 times. To do this, they would have to be held in suspension in the air, otherwise, they would have fallen out as sleet. The only reasonable conclusion is that the hailstones are negatively charged, and they are being held in suspension by their attraction to the positive charge at the top of the cloud. So the ionization process begins as the thunderstorm approaches full height, and within 20 minutes, we're seeing the effects of strong electric fields.

 

As concerns the electrical structures, normal thunderstorms typically are a simple dipole, with a positively charged anvil, and where the main negative charge region is in the middle of the thunderstorm. Supercells typically are tripoles, with an additional concentration of positive charge at the ground level.

 

As concerns the difference between tornadic and non-tornadic supercells, there is no known structural difference within the storms themselves. The defining characteristic of the supercell is the large rotating updraft (i.e., the mesocyclone). But the latest research shows that supercells that produce tornadoes are indistinguishable on radar from those that do not. This would make sense if the essential ingredient in a tornado is the positively charged air at the ground, which doesn't show up on radar.

 

"Do the differences in density also affect the non-neautralization of the positive and negative charges circulating inside the supercell cloud?"

 

I'm not sure I know what you mean by this. If you mean the density of the air, yes, that is very definitely a factor. Air near the ground has roughly 3 times the resistance of air at the top of the cloud. So the charge separations can be 3 times more powerful before a discharge occurs.

 

As concerns predicting tornadoes, existing science neglects the EM factors, assuming that tornadoes are just fluid dynamic. IMO, this is why 75% of all tornado warnings are false alarms, and why 28% of all tornadoes that do develop are not predicted. With stats like that, we're definitely missing something. So I'm currently working on a project that might help. iPhones have built-in magnetometers, which they use to determine which way is up, so that when you rotate the phone, it rotates the display. Anyway, tornadoes generate distinctive magnetic fields, and it might be possible to use iPhones as tornado detectors, running an app that monitors the magnetometer, and sounds an alarm if the magnetic pattern is detected. Since there are a lot of iPhones out there, this could be significant, for scientific data collection, and well as for public safety. In other words, storm chasers might be able to collect valuable information in the field, and maybe even catch more tornadoes, and the general public might sleep better at night, if they leave an iPhone running a tornado detector app on the night-stand.

 

Let me know if you have any other questions. ;)

 

Regards,

Charles