Is Sferics Equipment Still Needed in the Cockpit?

It depends on the mission and how much money you’re willing to spend.

Scott Dennstaedt, Ph.D

Wednesday, July 03, 2024 at 01:47 PM ET

Verified

Edited By: tccjeremy

[Courtesy: Scott Dennstaedt]

Key Takeaways:

Sferics devices like Stormscopes provide real-time, high-resolution detection of both cloud-to-ground and intracloud lightning, offering immediate insight into storm intensity and development.
Ground-based lightning data, while accurate in strike location, is often delayed and presented in a lower-resolution, gridded format, which can potentially understate storm activity in the cockpit.
Despite requiring interpretation and having limitations like radial distance error, sferics devices are valuable for immediate "gross vectoring" around convective weather and identifying turbulence, especially when complementing data-linked weather solutions.

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Question: Now that ground-based lightning has made its way into our cockpits, is there still a need for a sferics device such as a Stormscope?

Answer: It depends on your mission and how many Ben Franklins you have to spare. Your sferics (short for radio atmospherics) equipment may represent the only real-time weather you’ll ever see in your cockpit.

Sure, panel-mounted and portable weather systems deliver their product in a timely fashion, but it will never be as immediate as your sferics device. Once you understand how to interpret your real-time lightning guidance, it can become a valuable asset in your in-flight aviation toolkit.