1981 WC-130 Airborne Lightning Characterization Program Data Review.
Abstract
This report presents a review of airborne lightning data collected in late August 1981 by a WC-130 aircraft flying at 1500 to 18000 feet in the vicinity of thunderstorms over the Florida peninsula. Eleven electric and magnetic field sensors mounted on the aircraft provided outputs which were recorded both as continuous analog data with 2 megahertz bandwidth and as digital records of 164 microsecond windows with 20 megahertz bandwidth. Large amounts of data were collected for many parts of cloud-to-ground and intracloud lightning processes, including first and subsequent return strokes, stepped and dart-stepped leaders, preliminary breakdown pulses and intracloud pulses. Risetimes and field rates-fo-change have been calculated and compared with ground-based measurements. The data analyzed include 1034 lightning flashes from the analog record and 518 digital recordings, the latter including 347 return strokes, 68 events occurring ahead of the return stroke and 97 events from intracloud discharges. Submicrosecond risetimes were found in all the discharge phases analyzed and field rates-of-change for some intracloud processes approached rates-of-change for return strokes.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Aug 01, 1984
- Accession Number
- ADA150230
Entities
People
- B. P. Kuhlman
- M. J. Reazer
- P. L. Rustan
Organizations
- Wright Laboratory