Summary
This paper presents initial results of an arc temperature measurement system in development at the Morgan-Botti Lightning Laboratory, based on the application of optical emission spectroscopy. Long exposure acquisitions of emission spectra for standardised lightning current arcs employing a variety of initiation wire compositions are presented and analysed to produce a range of average temperature estimates using a Planck blackbody approximation. Initiation conductor materials exhibiting strong atomic emission lines in the observable range are selected for further analysis based on the Boltzmann plot method. The results obtained by each method are found to agree within a range of 1,000K, but are considerably lower than estimates obtained in the literature for natural and rocket-induced lightning due to several partially satisfied underlying assumptions. We discuss the practical technical challenges of the system, how these might be overcome and propose improvements to the measurements which we intend to realise through time-resolved spectroscopy.
Additional informations
| Publication type | ISH Collection |
|---|---|
| Reference | ISH2017_588 |
| Publication year | |
| Publisher | ISH |
| File size | 1,001 KB |
| Pages number | 6 |
| Price for non member | Free |
| Price for member | Free |
Authors
D. CARR, D. MITCHARD, C. STONE, M. HADDAD
