robert@uop.UUCP (Robert McCaul) (07/16/87)
in going over some old notes i found some references that might
be of interest:
(i am uncertain as to the obtainability of these)
the lightning research done for G.E. by
Julius Hagenguth
Karl B McEachron
Charles Steinmetz
and in 1962
USAF Lightning research (office of aerospace research)
and in 1961
Donald J Ritchie of Bendix Corp. edited russian papers on Ball Lightning
i hope these minor leads can help someone...
if you know of a place where these papers can be had,
please let me know.
thanks
Lightning in his hands....
....cogent!uop!robert
OR .....seismo!lll-crg!ucdavis!uop!robertdannie@coplex.UUCP (Dannie Gregoire) (05/16/89)
I am currently doing some research and study of lightning and have come upon the mention of a field mill (a device which measures the intesity of the electromagnetic pulse from lightning) The schematics I have found for one are non-standard as well as archaic. If any one has any schematics of such a device, please send them my way. I am also in search of a way to use a set of radio-directional finders to triangulate upon where lightning strikes are occuring. Any relevant info or comments on this project would be appreciated as well. Thanx-a-head-a-time! +--------------------------------------------------------------+ | |\ /\ Yet Another Precise Exageration from...... \ / | | | | _ -o o- | | |/.\/. Dannie Gregoire (dannie@coplex) `Roof!'- U | +--------------------------------------------------------------+
group@nmtsun.nmt.edu (Todd) (05/21/89)
Contact: Langmuir Lab. (atmospheric research) c/o New Mexico Tech. Socorro, Nm. 87801 "we make lightning the old fashined way.." --- "I have never looked upon ease and happiness as ends in themselves-- this ethical basis I call the ideal of the pigsty". group@jupiter.nmt.edu --A.E.
vail@tegra.UUCP (Johnathan Vail) (05/23/89)
While flying in a helicopter I saw a device called a Stormscope which
showed lightning strikes as dots on a display. This made storm fronts
easy to see and hopfully to avoid. It had several different scales, I
remember on being on the order of 250 miles. It operated like a radio
direction finder, according to the pilot. There were several antennae
on the bottom of the helicopter that it used.
Pilots could probably tell you more.
TV stations around the country are installing similar (fixed) devices
for their weather departments. An interesting twist here is that they
collect data, send it to a nationwide center and then presumably
massaged data is given back (sold?) to various TV and radio stations.
Channel 5 near Boston is part of this.
Sorry I don't have more details, these are just my observations. Hope
it helps...
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| | Johnathan Vail | tegra!N1DXG@ulowell.edu
|Tegra| (508) 663-7435 | N1DXG@145.110-,145.270-,444.2+,448.625-
-----nagle@well.UUCP (John Nagle) (05/27/89)
The Stormscope is an old idea, dating back to at least the 1950s. The basic concept is simple; there are two antennas, 90 degrees apart, and you take the intensity of static bursts received on each, treat this as a vector, and plot. There's some way, which escapes me, to tell which quadrant the source is in. Early systems used a long-persistence CRT to display the data; modern systems are digital. Construction articles appeared in various electronics publications in the 1970s. John Nagle
whester@nyx.UUCP (William R. Hester) (08/02/90)
In article <8528@inco.UUCP> jboggs@inco.UUCP (John Boggs) writes: >In article <2253@vela.acs.oakland.edu> amaranth@vela.acs.oakland.edu (Pa l Amaranth) writes: >> >>Not to get off the track too much, but I had a lighting strike close >>(*VERY* close) to my house. I was lying in bed watching tv when the >>windows went white immediately followed by the BOOOM. After peeling >>myself off the ceiling (THATS the secret of anti-gravity ;-) I went > >A friend and I got caught out on the river in one of our recent afternoo >thunderstorms. We had holed up in the cabin waiting it out as the rain >and lightning and thunder came down all around us. I was sitting in the >cabin leaning against an ungrounded aluminum trim strip. My friend was ean- >ing against an ungrounded aluminum strip which holds the weather boards n >place. A particularly close lightning strike set up some kind of charge in >those ungrounded pieces of metal that was sufficient to shock both my fr end >and I simultaneously. Neither of us received enough of a shock to cause any >damage but I can tell you we kept away from metal parts for the rest of he >storm. Any explanations of how this occurred? As far as we can tell, t e >lightning did NOT strike any part of the boat directly. > >-- >John Boggs > >McDonnell Douglas Electronic Systems Company >McLean, Virginia, USA John, Any flow of electrical current through a conductor is accompanied by a surrounding magnetic field. The lightning discharge was a LARGE flow of current with a BIG field...which expanded outward and cut across the metal pieces of your boat. This induced a voltage into the metal... just like a generator works...which was coupled into your body --completi g a circuit and shocking you. This is a common problem with lightning protection systems...where the downleads conduct heavy currents into the earth. Nearby electronic devices are damaged...not due to any direct hit, but due to the induced magnetic field and the resulting voltages generated in the devices. Keep all electronic devices well away from downleads of lightning "protection" system downleads. This same principle is the basis behind the damage caused to electronic devices by nuclear bombs...if the explosion doesn't hit you the electro- magnetic pulse will.