Electrical properties of water drops inside the dropwise cluster

The Letter shows that inside a dropwise cluster formed over the heated water surface, water drops are electrically charged. The charge of a separate drop reaches 103 units of an elementary charge. The drops are positioned from each other at the distance of double Debye radius length. It is fixed up that drops levitate over the water surface in consequence of the Stokes force acting from the side of gas–vapor flow rising from water surface. The Stokes force thousand times exceeds the Coulomb drop repulsion force from the water surface.