An unusual photograph of an air lightning discharge
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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.
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System fixes location of charge buildup in clouds. It provides range, azimuth, and elevation in real-time so that warning of charge buildup can be implemented.
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Device senses electric-field changes and hf radiation to distinguish cloud-to-ground flashes from cloud-to-cloud flashes.
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The occurrence of cloud-to-ground flashes that effectively lower positive charge to earth (+CG flash) over flat terrain has been documented in the mature stage of severe thunderstorms. Of the 31 documented +CG flashes, most had only one return stroke. Zero-to-peak rise times for the strokes averaged 7 microsec. The +CG flashes averaged 520 ms in duration, with 25 percent lasting more than 800 ms. Many of these had field changes suggestive of continuing current. Positive flashes have been observed to emanate from several regions of severe storms: high on the back of the main storm tower, through the wall cloud, and from the downshear anvil. Visually most of these positive flashes have emanated from high in the storm, and acoustic mapping of two shows thunder sources to a height of about 15 km.
(Previously announced in STAR as N81-33738)
High voltage safety, fuels safety, simulation, and response/measurement techniques are discussed. Travelling wave transit times, return circuit conductor configurations, LC ladder network generators, and repetitive pulse techniques are also discussed. Differential conductive coaxial cable, analog fiber optic link, repetitive pulse sampled data instrumentation system, flash A/D optic link system, and an FM telemetry system are considered.
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Observations of infrasound apparently generated by the collapse of the electrostatic field in the thundercloud, are presented along with electric field measurements and high-frequency thunder signals. The frequency of the infrasound pulse is about 1 Hz and amplitude a few microbars. The observations seem to confirm some of the theoretical predictions of Wilson (1920) and Dessler (1973). The signal is predominated by a compressional phase and seems to be beamed vertically. Calculation of the parameters of the charged region using the infrasound signal give reasonable values.
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Chondrules which are enigmatic millimeter sized silicate grains embedded in the most common class of meteorites, the chondritic (stony) meteorites. It is shown that the chondritic rocks formed by sedimentation processes in the solar nebula, and that it escaped the subsequent melting processes which differentiated the planets from the meteorite parent bodies.