Author's reply [to comments on 'On the concepts used in return stroke models applied in engineering practice']

For original paper see ibid., vol. 45, no. 1, p. 101-8, (2003). For comment see V.A. Rakov et al., ibid., p. 567. The paper further discusses current generation in lightning return stroke modeling. Rakov et al. have commented on the author's division of the total charge density into its "deposited" and "transferred" components. Any division of the total charge in a given lightning channel element at a given time into deposited and transferred components is model dependent and one cannot define uniquely the deposited charge at a given time. Even though the physical description of the composition of the charge on a given channel element at a given time is different in the current propagation and current generation points of view, both descriptions agree on the total charge in a given channel element at a given time, the total charge deposited on the channel element as time goes to infinity and the total charge transferred across the channel element as time goes to infinity.