Influence of Elastic Scattering on Electron Swarm Distribution in Electrified Gases

Abstract The propagation of energetic electrons through air is one key component in the generation of high‐energy atmospheric phenomena such as lightning‐generated X‐ray bursts, terrestrial gamma ray flashes (TGFs), and gamma ray glows. We show here that models for this propagation can be considerably affected by the parameterization of the differential cross section of elastic scattering of electrons on the molecular components of air. We assess existing parameterizations and propose a more accurate one that builds upon the most up‐to‐date measurements. Then we conclude that by overweighting the forward scattering probability, previous works may have overestimated the production of runaway electrons under high electric fields close to the thermal runaway threshold.