Säntis lightning research facility: a summary of the first ten years and future outlook
Farhad Rachidi, Marcos Rubinstein
Abstract
The Säntis Tower was instrumented in May 2010 to measure currents of lightning discharges striking the structure. Since then, the system has been recurrently updated and expanded. Presently, data associated with lightning striking the tower are collected at six different sites. The facility is equipped with a current measurement system, three electric field stations, an electrostatic field mill, two x‑ray sensors, a high-speed camera, and four slow cameras. This paper presents the latest measurement configuration at the facility. Other temporarily loaned instruments are also briefly described. Furthermore, examples of some of the data that have been gathered and analyzed are given, and an outlook as well as future plans for the facility are presented.