Carl L Lennon

US Patent:

41059662, Aug 8, 1978

Filed:

Mar 29, 1977

Appl. No.:

5/782482

Inventors:

Carl L. Lennon - Merritt Island FL
Thomas O. Britt - Merritt Island FL

Assignee:

The United States of America as represented by the Administrator of the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration - Washington DC

International Classification:

G01R 1304
G01R 1916

US Classification:

324113

Abstract:

An apparatus for monitoring, analyzing and accurately determining the value of peak current, the peak rate of change in current with respect to time and the rise time of the electrical currents generated in an electrical conductive mast that is located in the vicinity where lightning is to be monitored. The apparatus includes an electrical coil for sensing the change in current flowing through the mast and generating a voltage responsive thereto. An on-site recorder and a recorder control system records the voltages produced responsive to lightning strikes and converts the voltage to digital signals for being transmitted back to the remote command station responsive to command signals. The recorder and the recorder control system are carried within an RFI proof environmental housing into which the command signals are fed by means of a fiber optic cable so as to minimize electrical interference.

US Patent:

42727200, Jun 9, 1981

Filed:

May 30, 1979

Appl. No.:

6/043945

Inventors:

Carl L. Lennon - Merritt Island FL

Assignee:

The United States of America as represented by the Administrator of the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration - Washington DC

International Classification:

G01R 3102

US Classification:

324 72

Abstract:

A system for differentiating between cloud-to-cloud and cloud-to-ground lightning discharges which include an electric field antenna that senses the rate of change of an electric field produced by a lightning discharge. When the signal produced by the electric field exceeds a predetermined threshold, it is fed to a coincidence detector. A VHF antenna it also provided and generates a video signal responsive to a cloud-to-cloud lightning discharge, and this signal is fed through a level sensor, an inverter, to the coincidence detector simultaneously with the signal from the field detector. When signals from the electric field antenna and the VHF antenna appear at the coincidence detector simultaneously, such indicates that there is a cloud-to-cloud lightning discharge; whereas, when there is not a signal produced on the VHF antenna simultaneously with a signal produced by the field sensor, then a strike indicator connected to the coincidence detector indicates a cloud-to-ground lightning discharge.