The principle of micro-rocket electric field instrument and its application

A new instrument for measuring the electric field in thunderclouds, micro-r ocket electric field instrument, is introduced. It is remodeled from Phi 55 mm x 760mm hail-elimination micro-rocket. The principle is that a conductor will induce electric charge in electric field. It consists of electric fie ld sensor, measuring circuit, 1680MHz telemetric transmitter and antenna. T he feature of this instrument is simple structure, high integration, microm iniaturization, high mobility, low power dissipation, and low cost. This in strument succeeds in flight-testing in early 1998. The measuring range of e lectric field is 1-100kV/m. The measuring height is up to about 7.5km. It i s mainly applied for insurance of safety launching of spacecraft, detection and preliminary warning of lightning and hail in the weather department.