Negative Differential Resistance, Instability, and Critical Transition in Lightning Leader

<p>There is a&nbsp;challenging issue of die out and restrike of leaders in a burst of lightning event,&nbsp;such as multiplicity of strokes in grounded flash or recoil leader in cloud flash, although the argument involves the effects of channel characteristic of negative differential resistance instability, there is internal consistency about the instability, the bi-stability of insulation and induction and their critical transition from the view of bifurcation theory of nonlinear dynamics. In this paper, we examined the differential resistance characteristics of the leader-streams lighting system, we associate the leader-streamer channel differential resistance characteristics and sign change with channel state and instability transitions. The critical current and potential difference conditions for the stable transition of the leader-streamer channel are investigated. It is found that the necessary current required for the stable development of the channel is increased with the length of the leader channel, while the internal channel electric field of the leader decreases accordingly.</p>