What we do: NSSL researchers use a 3-D cloud model to investigate the full life-cycle of thunderstorms. The model has shown how graupel or other droplets could help form regions of lower charge within the storm.

NSSL researchers were pioneers in the science of launching instrumented weather balloons into thunderstorms. This capability allowed NSSL to collect weather data in the vicinity of tornadoes and drylines, and all the way up through a thunderstorm, gathering critically needed observations in the near-storm environment of thunderstorms. In addition, these mobile labs and ballooning systems provided the first vertical profiles of electric fields inside a thunderstorm leading to a new conceptual model of electrical structures within convective storms.

One way researchers test their theories is by making measurements of severe thunderstorms in the field and later analyzing the results. Large-scale field experiments involving many instruments with a primary focus on atmospheric electricity include the Deep Convective Clouds and Chemistry experiment (DC3), the MCS Electrification and Polarimetric Radar Study, the Severe Thunderstorm Electrification and Precipitation Study and the Thunderstorm Electrification and Lightning EXperiment.