ALOFT Instrument Overview

Convection in thunderclouds, charging, lightning activity, and the production of energetic radiation are all inter-related processes. To understand how energetic radiation is produced, gamma-ray detectors are fundamental but not enough. Therefore, the ALOFT payload consists in a diverse set of instruments designed to investigate simultaneously all these complementary aspects. The payload includes radiation detectors, optical instruments to image lightning discharges below the aircraft, electric field sensors to probe the cloud charge structure, radars and microwave radiometers to probe the 3D physical structure of the clouds.