Convection current

From Glossary of Meteorology



convection current

  1. (Or convective current.) Any current of air involved in convection.

    In meteorology, this is usually applied to the upward moving portion of a convection circulation, such as a thermal or the updraft in cumulus clouds.

  2. Any net transport of electric charge effected through mass motions of some charged medium; any electric current induced by other than electrical forces.

    In atmospheric electricity, the convection current is part of the air–earth current of charge transfer vertically between the earth's surface and the upper atmosphere. The term includes not only eddy diffusion currents existing in regions of net space charge but also currents due to fall of charged precipitation particles (precipitation current).
    See convection.


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