EARLY WARNING OF LIGHTNING THREAT
August 1st 2005

A new device from Campbell Scientific will improve knowledge of local electrical fields and provide warnings of overhead lightning threats to operations vulnerable to lighting.

Process and safety managers have had to rely on the traditional rotating vane field mill up to now, for lightning warning.

Cambell’s new CS110 electrical field meter uses a reciprocating shutter instead, a change that improves reliability and reduces power consumption. It measures the vertical component of the atmospheric electric field.

Campbell Scientific instruments are designed to operate on low power, enabling them to continue to monitor, communicate and send alarms from their own autonomous power supplies, should mains power not be available. The CS110 needs just 9.6 to 16VDC and its peak current demand is 750mA during motor operation.