A Field-Mill Proxy Climatology for the Lightning Launch Commit Criteria at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and NASA Kennedy Space Center

TL;DR

This study develops a proxy climatology for Lightning Launch Commit Criteria violations at Cape Canaveral using electric field measurements, aiding launch planning and safety improvements.

Contribution

It introduces a novel proxy climatology method for LLCC violations based on electric field data, filling a gap due to lack of long-term LLCC records.

Findings

Proxy climatology aligns with historical LLCC violation patterns.

Electric field measurements effectively predict LLCC violations.

Method supports improved launch decision-making and risk assessment.

Abstract

The Lightning Launch Commit Criteria (LLCC) are a set of complex rules to avoid natural and rocket-triggered lightning strikes to in-flight space launch vehicles. The LLCC are the leading source of scrubs and delays to space launches from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS) and NASA Kennedy Space Center (KSC). An LLCC climatology would be useful for designing launch concept of operations, mission planning, long-range forecasting, training, and setting LLCC improvement priorities. Unfortunately, an LLCC climatology has not been available for CCAFS/KSC. Attempts have been made to develop such a climatology, but they have not been entirely successful. The main shortfall has been the lack of a long continuous record of LLCC evaluations. Even though CCAFS/KSC is the world's busiest spaceport, the record of LLCC evaluations is not detailed enough to create the climatology. As a potential solution, the research in this study developed a proxy climatology of LLCC violations by using the long continuous record of surface electric field mills at CCAFS/KSC.