A remote sensor for the three components of transient electric fields

Author

Thomson, Ewen M. ; Medelius, Pedro J. ; Uman, Martin A.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. Eng., Florida Univ., Gainesville, FL, USA

Volume

35

Issue

3

fYear

1988

fDate

8/1/1988 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

426

Lastpage

433

Abstract

An active device for measuring the three orthogonal components of a wideband (3 Hz to 4 MHz) transient electric field is described. The system design is specifically tailored to detect the electric fields from lightning occurring at distances from less that 1 km to over 100 km. Each electric field component is sensed on one of three isolated sections of a single metallic sphere that itself is electrically isolated from its surroundings. Electronics within the sphere detect and process signals proportional to the charges induced by the electric fields on the isolated sections of the sphere. The signals are passed to a remote recording device via analog fiber optics links. Also contained within the sphere are controls both to change gain settings and to apply internal calibrations on command from a remote VHF transmitter

Keywords

electric field measurement; electric fields; electric sensing devices; lightning; measurement systems; transients; 3 Hz to 4 MHz; analog fiber optics links; calibrations; design; electric field measurement; gain; induced charge; lightning; measurement systems; metallic sphere; orthogonal components; remote VHF transmitter; remote recording device; remote sensor; transient electric fields; Calibration; Electric variables measurement; Lightning; Optical fibers; Optical recording; Optical transmitters; Remote sensing; Signal detection; Signal processing; Wideband;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Industrial Electronics, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0278-0046

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/41.3117

Filename

3117