Lightning and atmospheric research in New Mexico

Summary form only given, as follows. During the summer monsoon season in the Southwest, isolated, stationary thunderstorms often form over the small mountain ranges in central New Mexico. It is much easier to study the formation and development of thunderstorms in such small, isolated systems than in the larger, more complex systems which occur in the Midwest and Southeast. Because of this, New Mexico is a worldwide center for thunderstorm research. Many novel techniques, including cloud seeding and artificial triggering of lightning, have been tried and developed here. Much new instrumentation for studying thunderstorms has been developed at New Mexico Tech, including ground-based, airplane-borne, balloon-borne and rocket-borne instruments for electric field and particle size and charge measurements; a wide-band dual-polarization radar for studies of particle size distribution and particle alignment in storms; and a lightning interferometer for studies of the propagation of lightning channels inside clouds.<
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