UPDATE on electrostatic charge meter.

   This is an update to my post located here. http://abeatifulmorning.blogspot.com/2012/05/electrostatic-atmospheric-charge-meter.html , It describes my first time putting my invention to action during an actual thunderstorm.

Sorry there is no pictures just a wall of text as an update to how my meter performed during a storm. Well there was a very good thunderstorm a few nights ago, unfortunately I have been sick so I had to cut my observations short. My meter performed quite wonderfully. However I do not see how it can be used as a lightning strike warning system. My expectations were to see the charge rise to a certain point where a lightning strike would be inevitable and then when the lightning struck the charge would drop. This is not what I observed.

    My meter would find what I like to call a base charge where the number only fluctuates by about 10 mV per minute on average.The "base charge" for this previous lightning storm was around 32-43mV during the most intense part, it rose up to 65mV before I had to call it a night. My meter indicated two separate types of lightning strikes (I assume 1 in ground to cloud, the other is cloud to cloud). I call the first one type A, The reading on the meter spikes when there is a lightning flash. It often peaks around 300 mV for a fraction of a second before returning to within two points of the base charge. My Idea is that this is cloud to cloud lightning. The second, type B, Is the same usually peaking around 200-400mV but followed with a sudden reversal of polarity before returning to base charge all within a fraction of a second. I believe type B to be cloud to ground lightning. I did not directly observe the lightning itself other than the flash. I was busy graphing the base charge and intently watching the meter. I was ill prepared for my results and my graph does not indicate any of the voltage spikes from the lightning but instead shows the base charge as it moves up and down during the storm. An interesting thing to note is the base charge reversed polarity several times at the beginning of the storm. I had expected the charge to go to negative and stay, but it did not. It finally settled itself in the positive range and built up rather quickly.

     My device probably wont teach anything that we as humans don't already know about lightning. But it can give someone a far better grasp on the concept of whats going on in a storm.And it is a very useful tool,far simpler than the alternative. I came up with the Idea because I wanted a device to warn of lightning before it struck. One night I watched a documentary (NOVA) on lightning and saw that they were using a monitoring system to tell them when lightning was most likely to hit, so then I knew it was possible. I looked up online how to build such devices and much to my dismay found rather complicated schematics and overly expensive kits NOPE!, I said, I'll design my own and that is exactly what I did. I came up with the basic idea and the next day built and tested the prototype and it functioned wonderfully, and now it has proven itself even in a thunderstorm.