Low-cost dropsonde development for multi-point measurement of
thunderstorm electric fields
Abstract
Thunderstorms are often described as consisting of three charge layers:
upper positive, central negative, and lower positive. This simple charge
structure is inferred from balloon-borne electric field measurements,
however, they typically only provide information from a single moving
point. Realistic charge structures in thunderclouds are expected to be
more complicated than this tripole description for a variety of reasons,
including non-trivial updraft geometry, turbulence, and charge
deposition by lightning. In order to more fully measure such charge
structures, we herein describe the development of an experiment composed
of multiple low-cost electric field dropsondes. Each dropsonde consists
of two pairs of electrodes where each pair has the electrodes on
opposing sides of the device and connected to a differential charge
amplifier. The enclosures for the dropsondes are designed so that they
spin as they fall which induces charge motion and allows us to measure
electric field strength. This electric field data will be transmitted to
a ground station in real time along with GPS coordinates. By keeping
instrument and recovery costs low, we aim to launch a single balloon
payload carrying several of these instruments to drop at intervals to
provide a multi-point map of electric field and infer associated charge
structures inside a thunderstorm.