Tag Archives: electrostatic

A recent issue of New Scientist (August 1st, 2009) featured some comments on electrostatic charges that support our research in crop circles. In the Last Word section, a reader asked what it means when you are outdoors and your hair stands on end. Turns out this means negative charges are coming down from clouds above which happens just before a lightening strike. The commentary also mentioned the idea of “vertical voltage gradients” which we’ve observed for years in the crop circles with our handheld static device, the Trek-520 (pictured above). As we’ve seen over the years, the normal range for this gradient is about 100-200 volts per meter, with higher voltages as you move away from the ground towards the sky. However, some crop circles change the gradient so that the voltage gradient, at around waist height and lower, is different than in the surrounding fields of standing crop. We’ve always suspected that these gradient altering effects are part of the reason crop circles can generate such weird electromagnetic effects on our electronic devices. The New Scientist article confirms that such a gradient exists and varies from time to time for many reasons. And if you ever are outside and your hair stands on end or you feeling tingling in your body, run: lightening is heading your way.