Long-term Analysis of the Fair Weather Electric Field

A new high-technology electric-field-mill was installed in 1998 in Norman, Oklahoma to evaluate the feasibility of deployment in networks. The field mill performend extremely well over an extended period of time, allowing for the collection of nearly continuous data for more than a year. After removing data that were contaminated by electrical storms, the data were analyzed in order to characterize fair-weather electric fields in the central Great Plains to compare the electric field with other meteorological variables such as solar insolation, wind direction and speed, and relative humidity. An attempt was also made to elicit well known fair-weather electrical features such as the Carnegie curve and the "sunrise" effect.