International intercomparison of passive radiation dosimetry in simulated lightning discharges using a high-voltage impulse generator

This work follows up on and expands previous studies dealing with the detection of ionizing radiation in the vertical field of an electric discharge generated between the electrode tip and a grounded plate electrode. The aim of the experiment was to measure the radiation dose in detail along the entire high voltage discharge covering 180° around the discharge axis at a radius of 1 m. The settings of the pulsed high voltage generator were the same as in the previous experiments: voltage amplitude 0.9 MV, waveform shape 1.2/50 μs, discharge energy 80 kJ and electrodes 1 m apart. In this experiment, the number of negative discharges was increased from 400 to 1000 pulses, for better statistics. Passive detectors were used to detect ionizing radiation in order to eliminate the influence of the electromagnetic field of the impulse generator and the discharge itself.