Summary of 2011 direct and nearby lightning strikes to Launch Complex 39B, Kennedy Space Center, Florida (original) (raw)

2012, 2012 International Conference on Lightning Protection (ICLP)

This is an event driven, 100 MS/s sampling system, which includes six synchronized high-speed video cameras installed atop each of the three towers (two per tower) and one remote high-speed video camera installed about five kilometers southwest of LC39B (temporarily installed in the firing room I of the Launch Control Center (LCe) pending final installation atop the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB». Current sensors installed at ground level on each of the nine downconductors of the LPS; four dH/dt, 3-axis measurement stations; and five dE/dt stations composed of two antennas each. The electromagnetic sensors are all installed at ground level with elevations The LC39B LPS and its instrumentation are described in detail in [I] and [2], respectively. The LPS can be seen as two independent, but synchronized, data acquisition systems, Lightning and Weather [3] both running 24/7. In general, the LPS consists of a catenary wire system (at about 181 meters above ground level) with nine downconductors connected to ground, supported by three insulators installed atop three towers in a triangular configuration. Field sensors' signals are digitized and transmitted, via fiber optics, to centralized transient recorders located in the Pad Termination Connection Room (PTCR). All the LPS instrumentation, including the digitizers, transient recorders, and computers, are battery backed up.