Apparently much like the sprite lightning plentiful
above the clouds, this reverse lightning from
various tall objects on the ground is plentiful
but little known, and it had never been captured
in any photographs before, ever.
It is like large scale Kirlian photography.
Any object that rises off the main homogenous 'normal flat' of the
surface of this spheroid will acquire a gradient with respect to an
insulted object up in the atmosphere. Clouds and water conduct, but the
air doesn't. So, a charge-up of the cloud occurs with respect to the
spheroid (Earth, in this case) Since it is conductive any release of
that charge will usually result in a 'full dump' of the entire charge
(most all of it anyway).
It will release from the charged cloud to Earth, but it is possible to
see tendrils (leaders) that traverse from other than flat Earthbound
objects (particularly upwardly pointy objects) up to the sky or
particularly, an overhead cloud formation.
Think of it like the leaders that form when you near the outside of a
plasma ball. You are an attractor, even though there is an insulator
between you and the potential you share the attraction with.
The electrons, typically move from the cloud to the Earth though,
because the Earth has far more available sinking mass than any separated,
charged object ever could. So the attraction is ALWAYS going to be to
the spheroidal mass unless the insulated, approaching object is bigger,
which only happens when planets collide.
This tells me that an asteroid that impacts Earth (then meteorite)
would have to have a lightning flash event to the ground at some altitude
prior to it's impact. Hard to catch though, with the super-heated
fireball being so bright.
In fact, anything previously charged or suspended in the air long
enough to gain sufficient charge will pass an electron 'packet' to Earth
as soon as it becomes able to do so, either by arc over or contact.
This is why sub-mariners (or sailors) catching winch lines being
dropped by helicopters ground it to the sub first.
