Download or read book Natural and Triggered Lightning Launch Commit Criteria LCC written by and published by . This book was released on 1999 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This document has been prepared to document the Lightning Launch Commit Criteria recommended by the Lightning Advisory Panel (LAP) in May 1998. The LAP is a joint AF/NASA panel that provides an independent scientific assessment of, advice on, and recommended changes to the Lightning Launch Commit Criteria, lightning-related issues in the Flight Rules, and Lightning Advisories/Warnings for ground operations.
Download or read book Lightning Launch Commit Criteria written by and published by . This book was released on 1996 with total page 85 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Airborne Field Mill Project was jointly undertaken by the USAF and NASA during the winters of 1990, 1991, and 1992, and the summer of 1991 in order to gather in situ airborne field mill (ABFM) data to revise the USAF and NASA lightning Launch Commit Criteria (LCC) for manned and unmanned space launches. The Marshall Space Flight Center recommended changes to the lightning LCC based on their analysis of the ABFM data obtained under the Airborne Field Mill Project. A committee known as the Peer Review Committee (PRC) was formed 'To draft and finalize a subset of the Natural and Triggered Lightning Launch Commit Criteria' based on ABFM Program data.' This report documents the LCC recommended by the PRC in March 1994 and presented to the Chief Engineers Council of the USAF Space Materiel Command for their concurrence in August 1994.
Download or read book A History of the Lightning Launch Commit Criteria and the Lightning Advisory Panel for America s Space Program written by National Aeronautics and Administration and published by . This book was released on 2014-09-21 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since natural and artificially-initiated (or 'triggered') lightning are demonstrated hazards to the launch of space vehicles, the American space program has responded by establishing a set of Lightning Launch Commit Criteria (LLCC) and Definitions to mitigate the risk. The LLCC apply to all Federal Government ranges and have been adopted by the Federal Aviation Administration for application at state-operated and private spaceports. The LLCC and their associated definitions have been developed, reviewed, and approved over the years of the American space program starting from relatively simple rules in the mid-twentieth century (that were not adequate) to a complex suite for launch operations in the early 21st century. During this evolutionary process, a "Lightning Advisory Panel (LAP)" of top American scientists in the field of atmospheric electricity was established to guide it. This history document provides a context for and explanation of the evolution of the LLCC and the LAP. A companion document on the rationale is currently being prepared by the LAP to provide the physical, mathematical, and operational justification for the current LLCC. Lightning that takes place naturally in thunderstorms was recognized as a threat to spaceflight early in the space age, and the early launch rules prohibited flight through thunderstorms. What had not been recognized until Apollo XII was launched in 1969 was that an ascending rocket could "trigger" lightning if it flew into highly electrified clouds, even in the absence of natural lightning. Apollo XII was struck twice by triggered lightning, and as a result, additional rules were added to forbid flying within 5 NM of thunderstorms or through certain non-thunderstorm clouds that experience showed had the potential of being electrified. During the time between Apollo XII and the beginning of the Space Shuttle Program, several important research programs were carried out to learn more about lightning and cloud electricity in Florida, and additional instrumentation was installed at the KSC and Eastern Range (ER). The LLCC were modified for the Skylab program in 1973 and again for the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project in 1975. Expendable launch vehicles (ELV) had their own separate but similar rules. In 1979 the nascent Shuttle program adopted a set of LLCC that included constraints and waivers that were based on surface electric field mill measurements. The ELV rules did not adopt the field mill criteria. In 1987, triggered lightning caused the loss of Atlas/Centaur 67 (AC 67) and its Fleetsatcom payload. A major cause of this accident was the failure of the ELV rules to include a field mill criterion. The Shuttle rules would have prohibited the launch of AC 67. In the aftermath of several investigations and a Congressional Hearing, a lightning "Peer Review Committee," a predecessor of the LAP, was established to guide NASA and the Air Force in the drafting of LLCC and the conduct of associated research. Several major research projects were undertaken, including the first "Airborne Field Mill Program" (ABFM I, 1990-1992) in which direct measurements of electric fields in Florida clouds were made from a specially instrumented aircraft. ABFM I resulted in several improvements to the LLCC, and the lessons learned ultimately led to an even more successful ABFM II campaign a decade later. As new knowledge and additional operational experience has been gained, the LLCC have been updated to preserve or increase their safety and increase launch availability. All launches of ELV and manned vehicles now use the same rules, which simplifies their understanding and application and minimizes the cost of the weather infrastructure to support them. In the future, the processes and procedures that have evolved can be used to facilitate further improvements in both launch availability and safety as new research findings become available.
Download or read book NASA Authorization written by United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. Subcommittee on Science, Technology, and Space and published by . This book was released on 1989 with total page 604 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Fiscal Year 1990 Authorization Request and Budget Estimates for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration written by United States. Congress. House. Committee on Science, Space, and Technology. Subcommittee on Space Science and Applications and published by . This book was released on 1989 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Federal Register written by and published by . This book was released on 2000-10-25 with total page 1604 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book 37th AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting and Exhibit written by and published by . This book was released on 1999 with total page 654 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Descriptive and Conditional Climatology for Specific Launch Commit Criteria for Cape Canaveral Florida written by Edward C. Goetz and published by . This book was released on 2000-03-01 with total page 111 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1987, an unmanned Atlas-Centaur-67 launched from the Cape triggered a lightning discharge that disabled the on-board guidance system and Range Control destroyed the platform. This incident spurred the review and revision of the natural and triggered lightning launch commit criteria (LCC). The LCC are a set of eleven complex rules that are constantly evaluated by the Launch Weather Team (LWT) of 45th Weather Squadron (45WS). Unfortunately, the 45WS LWT does not have either a descriptive or conditional climatology for many of the LCC. This thesis addresses the lightning and the cumulus LCC. A descriptive climatology for both the lightning and the cumulus LCC is presented for the 1989 to 1998 period Additionally, the climate of the Cape is divided into four seasons, and a conditional climatology is introduced for the cumulus LCC. The conditional climatology procedure uses a season-specific discriminant function to classify the radiosonde observations into either the violation or no violation group for the four seasons Because of the limited number of cumulus violation cases, the statistical significance of the four seasonal discriminant functions could not be verified. Therefore, further refinement of the seasonal discriminant functions is needed to make them a more useful forecasting tool.
Download or read book Rationales for the Lightning Launch Commit Criteria written by J. C. Willett and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book International Aerospace and Ground Conference on Lightning and Static Electricity written by and published by . This book was released on 1991 with total page 512 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book International Aerospace Abstracts written by and published by . This book was released on 1999 with total page 1016 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Observer written by and published by . This book was released on 1998 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book International Conference on Radar Meteorology written by and published by . This book was released on 1997 with total page 646 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book A history of the Lightning Launch Commit Criteria and the Lightning Advisory Panel for America s space program written by and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Conference on Aviation Range and Aerospace Meteorology written by and published by . This book was released on with total page 556 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Climate Analysis of Lightning Launch Commit Criteria for Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station written by Eric C. Muller and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 111 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We have conducted climate analyses of natural lightning activity at Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (KSC/CCAFS). These analyses were conducted to improve forecasts of lightning related hazards for, and the planning of, space vehicle launches at KSC/CCAFS. If a space vehicle is hit by lightning during launch, the vehicle and payload may sustain irreparable damage. Lightning-based rules for conducting launch and vehicle preparation activities have been developed by launch managers at KSC/CCAFS. In this research, we investigated one aspect of these--the natural lightning launch commit criteria. Our goal was to improve the scientific basis for skillful forecasting of the probability of lightning hazards. Such forecasts have the potential to reduce lightning related risks to personnel and equipment, and to save millions of dollars in preparation and launch costs. Using cloud-to-ground lightning strike data from the National Lightning Detection Network during January 1989 through December 2008, we identified events in which the KSC/CCAFS natural lightning criteria for launches were violated--that is, when excessive lightning activity prevented or would have prevented launches from occurring. Based on these events, we developed daily and multi-day probabilities of lightning violations. We also developed and applied an objective statistical method for determining the seasonality of lightning and for identifying six lightning violation seasons through the course of the calendar year. These seasons were used as the basis for characterizing the temporal and spatial patterns associated with climate scale variations in lightning at KSC/CCAFS. We used atmospheric reanalysis data to analyze the physical processes that lead to interannual variability in: (a) lightning violations in each season; and (b) the start and end dates of the main lightning season. These analyses led to the identification of regional and global scale processes that tend to alter the probability of lightning violations, including: (1) shifts in the strength, latitude, and zonal extent of the Bermuda High; (2) alterations of regional scale divergence and convection, and (3) teleconnections to global scale climate variations. Several of these processes tend to be important in all or most of the six lightning violation seasons. The results of this study help form the foundation for improvements in the analysis and forecasting of natural lightning violations, and in the planning of launches at KSC/CCAFS.
Download or read book Preprints Radar Meteorology Conference written by and published by . This book was released on 1997 with total page 646 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
