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Is Sferics Equipment Still Needed in the Cockpit?

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

[Courtesy: Scott Dennstaedt]
Gemini Sparkle

Key Takeaways:

  • Stormscope (sferics) devices offer real-time, high-resolution detection of both cloud-to-ground and intracloud lightning without attenuation, serving as a critical "gross vectoring aid" for immediate assessment of thunderstorm intensity and potential turbulence.
  • Ground-based lightning systems, while accurate in strike location, deliver data that is often delayed, lower resolution, and represented in a grid format in the cockpit, limiting their immediacy and comprehensive strike detail compared to sferics.
  • Effective utilization of Stormscope requires pilot interpretation and frequent clearing to discern active cells from false strikes, and it should be complemented with data-link weather solutions to create a robust system for convective weather avoidance.
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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. 

Scott Dennstaedt, Ph.D

Scott resides in Charlotte, North Carolina, and flies regularly throughout the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast U.S. He is a CFI and former NWS meteorologist. Scott is the author of "The Skew-T log (p) and Me: A Primer for Pilots" and the founder of EZWxBrief.

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