Lightning Detectors

[John Hudson]

One of my favorite photography genres is nice lightning photography, and I was considering adding a lightning detector to my chase gear.

In particular, I was looking at the Boltek LD-250, since it can be used as a base unit or on the road with my laptop, and integrated with GPS.

Does anyone else here use lightning detector hardware, and if so, do you find it helps with your chasing in general?

Thanks in advance!


John
VE4 JTH

 

[scott r currens]

One of my favorite photography genres is nice lightning photography, and I was considering adding a lightning detector to my chase gear.

In particular, I was looking at the Boltek LD-250, since it can be used as a base unit or on the road with my laptop, and integrated with GPS.

Does anyone else here use lightning detector hardware, and if so, do you find it helps with your chasing in general?

Thanks in advance!


John
VE4 JTH

I almost got one of these systems in 2003 but decided against it because I heard about the WXworx system that was coming out the next year. For the money you get lightning and alot more with WXworx although you will have a monthly subscription fee. For a lot less money you could get a wireless data card and subscription to one of the many services that provide lightning data.

 

[Dan Robinson]

Your car already has a great lightning detector installed - the AM radio. You can use the radio to verify the presence and frequency of lightning and even estimate its distance from you. You need to tune the radio to a spot where it is getting a weak signal to hear the 'crackles' that lightning produces. If you don't already have a visual on the lightning, the radio will tell you if it is there or not.

It's a free, reliable and very effective detection method that I used up until I got WxWorx. If you have a good mobile cellular internet setup, you could sign up for WeatherTap, which at last check was the only affordable way to get realtime NLDN data.

 

[John Erwin]

One of my favorite photography genres is nice lightning photography, and I was considering adding a lightning detector to my chase gear.

In particular, I was looking at the Boltek LD-250, since it can be used as a base unit or on the road with my laptop, and integrated with GPS.

Does anyone else here use lightning detector hardware, and if so, do you find it helps with your chasing in general?

Some good comments already, so I won't repeat what was said. However there are some severe limitations on what a single lightning detector can do for you; so much so that the data provided would likely be of little use to you in a mobile setting. Essentially the bearing and distance to any lightning activity is something of a large variable due to some basic physics.

I had also thought about putting one of these on my vehicle but abandoned the idea after finding out the limited usefulness. I would still like one at home though for my station there.. more for personal enjoyment than anything else.

 

[Tim Samaras]

Actually, I would be more interested in the Boltek EFM-100 Atmospheric Electric Field Monitor. Measures the static electric field to see what YOUR local environment would be-perhaps would bias your decision to step out of the vehicle with a metal tripod..



Certainly, common sense is one's best defense on making decisions on the local environment regarding the possibility of getting struck. I think the EFM-100 would be useless with a bolt from the blue. Oh, it might go off a few hundred milliseconds before..



Agree with Dan's assesment of using the ol' AM radio---can't beat it.

Tim

 

[scott r currens]

Actually, I would be more interested in the Boltek EFM-100 Atmospheric Electric Field Monitor. Measures the static electric field to see what YOUR local environment would be-perhaps would bias your decision to step out of the vehicle with a metal tripod..



Certainly, common sense is one's best defense on making decisions on the local environment regarding the possibility of getting struck. I think the EFM-100 would be useless with a bolt from the blue. Oh, it might go off a few hundred milliseconds before..



Agree with Dan's assesment of using the ol' AM radio---can't beat it.

Tim

I'd think that an Electric Field Monitor/Mill would be an excellent item for tour companies to purchase. It's on my wishlist but it will be a very long time before it reaches the top and I purchase one.

Why doesn't a "bolt from the blue" generate an electric field more than a few milliseconds before the strike?

 

[Dan Robinson]

That Boltek field mill is awesome! I didn't even know that was on the market now. Price is within reach too. Maybe next year.....

 

[Ryan McGinnis]

I'd think that an Electric Field Monitor/Mill would be an excellent item for tour companies to purchase. It's on my wishlist but it will be a very long time before it reaches the top and I purchase one.

Why doesn't a "bolt from the blue" generate an electric field more than a few milliseconds before the strike?

I suspect it is because such bolts, being positive anvil bolts, often strike far from the area of the storm where one would expect a prolonged localized electric field disturbance. However, as the actual leader works its way down, no doubt the ground charge goes bonkers just before the strike.

Hopefully someone who's a met and more a wiz at explaining lightning will explain it better than I just did.

 

[Greg Campbell]

I dragged one of these babies out of the dumpster at work a few months back, and have been itching to try it out. The instrument does a bang-up job of detecting static charged balloons and whatnot. I suspect that running a short antenna up from the sense plate will allow it to readily measure atmospheric charge.
(The trick is to measure, not attract the charge. )

The thing has two analog outputs, so it shouldn't be difficult setup an alarm that hollers when the local field strength exceeds an arbitrary limit. With one of those cheapo USB A/D converters and a few lines of quickbasic code, you could program a rate-of-change alarm too.


http://www.mksinst.com/product/Product.aspx?ProductID=251

 

[Tarmo Tanilsoo]

Agree with Dan's assesment of using the ol' AM radio---can't beat it.

Tim

So do I. When threat for thunderstorms is picking up in my neighborhood, I set at least one radio to AM band to hear if there are any lightning strikes.

 

[Tim Samaras]

Scott typed:

Why doesn't a "bolt from the blue" generate an electric field more than a few milliseconds before the strike?

Scott:

Actuallly, that was a WAG on my part. I think field mills are great for near storm environments, but I'm not so sure about an adequate warning of charge buildup from a 'bolt from the blue'. I'm going to guess that the warning could be only seconds, but could be longer. Being that this situation is near impossible to measure, one would have to ask survivors about how long the tingling/hair raising effects of the near pre-strike environment was before the actual strike.

Greg:

I want to go dumpster diving with you.

Tim

 

[Chip Legett]

I very well could be mistaken, but isn't the NLDN data delayed 30 minutes to all public sources still? I'm a little out of touch with the commercial data market since I get everything I need through other sources. If so, you might consider that when buying a subscription to something that provides lightning data.

 

[Dan Robinson]

NLDN is delayed on their free public data, but it is near-real time on WxWorx and WeatherTap the last time I used it. I confirmed this several times this year when new storms would visually produce their first CGs, the strikes would be on the WxWorx display in the next one or two updates (5-10 minutes).