我发现你最初被称为:http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/JB073i006p01889/full xkcd基于超链接的网页你提到http://www.agu.org/pubs/crossref/1968/JB073i006p01889.shtml本文的完整参考:Oetzel, g . n .(1968),计算直径的闪电回击,j .地球物理学。Res, 73(6), 1889 - 1896年(doi: 10.1029 / JB073i006p01889) [1]。文摘:>第一次回击的直径被发现躺在* * * * 1 - 4厘米范围。随后返回中风较小,直径在* * * * 0.2 - -0.5厘米。在许多情况下,中风塔显示证据较小的中风发生。这是解释为中风由一个向上的领袖。这篇文章很老,但仍然是相关的。最近的一篇论文审查闪电的物理综述论文,题为“闪电的物理学”(德怀尔和乌曼(2014)][2]。他们现在闪电时的各个步骤的隐含形式,说明了这幅图[(图1)][3]:!(无花果。1.3(德怀尔和乌曼(2014)][3]基本上,当雷击有几个阶段。 There is the stepped leader component, that somewhat lead the way for the exchanges that will follow. In the figure, we notice the positive and negative signs (+ / -) and how they change position depending on the discharge. The stepped leader can be followed by return strikes and so on. In this paper they mention diameters for the stepped leader, which may appear to be much larger than the return stroke, such as in the range of one to ten meter in diameter: > The luminous diameter of the stepped leader has been measured photographically to be between 1 and 10 m. But - this is by using photography - yet the core of the lightning at the center (the core) seem to be a few centimeter in diameter: > It is thought, however, that most of the stepped-leader current flows down a narrow conducting core a few centimeters in diameter at the center of the observed leader. So in the end both papers tend toward similar centimeter-scale measurements for the lightning core. ---------- The core: aforementioned literature refer to the component of the actual lightning as a 'current carrying core' surrounded by a corona sheath. The sheath is what appear to be 1 to 10 m in diameter, where the actual 'electricity channel' is centimeter wide; so this core as the centimeter wide channel is the electron pathway. [1]: http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/JB073i006p01889 [2]: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S037015731300375X [3]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/9mVGG.jpg