Estimation of lightning location from single station observations of sferics

Abstract

A system for lightning location from single station observations has been developed for localizing lightning (distance and direction) at rather short distances (several hundred kilometers). In this system, a vertical component of the electric field and two horizontal components of the magnetic field of the VLF wave of the sferics are observed. The sferics are usually observed as a pulse train. The first pulse is used for estimation of the direction. The second and subsequent pulses are multiple reflections between the ionosphere and the ground. The differences in arrival time of these reflected waves are determined by the propagation distance between the ground and the ionosphere. The reflection altitude of the ionosphere and the horizontal distance to the lightning location are estimated from the arrival time difference of more than two pulses. In this research, the electromagnetic pulses radiated from the lightning are first analyzed by the full wave method, considering the ionosphere, free space, and the ground, in order to evaluate the location estimation method. The lightning location is estimated by calculating the space discharge sferics waveform at the observation point. Observations were also carried out with the lightning location system for estimation of lightning locations. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.