Fast antennas: A plea for continued use

摘要

Fast antennas are an old technology for observing lightning. Fast antenna waveforms were often included in old lightning papers. Because newer technologies like high speed cameras and VHF mappers see more detail than fast antennas, most new papers do not include fast antenna waveforms. This is a shame. Fast antennas see some pulses that newer technologies do not see, and fast antennas measure charge transfer that newer technologies do not measure. Fast antenna measurements are easy to make and can be made far from the lightning flash. In many cases scientists don't even have to make these measurements themselves; regional fast antenna networks record most lightning flashes and make waveforms available to scientists free of charge. New lightning observations with new technologies would be easier to interpret if they included old fashioned, freely available fast antenna waveforms.