Charge separation due to water drop and cloud droplet interactions in an electric field

Measurements were made of the electric charge acquired by drops of mean radius of about 750μm, in the presence of a vertical electric field E, the value of which could be varied from 4·5 to 27kV/m. It was found that the average charge acquired by the water drop as a consequence of the inductive process increased from 0·1fC to about 0·25fC as the electric field strength increased from 5kV/m to about 15kV/m, but there‐after decreased with increasing values of electric field. This work suggests that the collisions between polarized rain‐drops and cloud droplets in natural clouds could give rise, very effectively, to the production of electric fields of about 30kV/m; but that significantly larger fields could not be produced since all collisions in the higher fields would result in permanent coalescence.