Benjamin Franklin’s famous key and kite experiment is getting a 21st
century update, thanks to a newly funded project out of the University
of Colorado Boulder that will create an instrument that can detect the
electric field changes that measure lightning strikes. 



The university’s College of Engineering and Applied Science was given
support by the Jonathan Merage Foundation, which had previously funded
UC-Boulder’s work on the VORTEX2 tornado research project. 



This round of funding will go toward a new SUV for the school that will
allow researchers to storm chase with the help of the school’s 15-pound
Tempest fixed-wing UAS, which will be scouting locations for lightning
strikes. The SUV will serve as a Wi-Fi node for the UAS, which will
serve as a radio tether and keep operations line of sight but still
nomadic. 



“This new equipment will allow CU-Boulder College of Engineering and
Applied Science students to participate in a truly unique and
revolutionary approach to lightning research,” says Brian Argrow, a
professor of aerospace engineering at CU-Boulder. 



The project has three phases, starting with a baseline analysis and
integration of the systems. It will then move onto flight tests and wrap
up with deployment of UAS into thunderstorms in 2015.