Dust Devils and Dust Fountains: The Measurement Challenges

The author provides an overview of the topic of electric field measurement. The author thinks this may be because field measurement is not required for the operation of a power system or even for the design of a power transmission line. Existing technology takes care of routine atmospheric measurements. In other words, a moveable or isolated field meter is pretty well only a research tool and is needed by only a small community. Nevertheless, the measurement provides some interesting challenges to the instrumentation engineer, particularly when it comes to the measurement of stationary fields, and particularly when those fields contain wind-borne charged dust. The author hopes to have communicated some of the sense of excitement and achievement that solving these challenges has engendered in him, and his predecessors and colleagues