A three-station lightning detection system

Abstract

A three-station network is described which senses magnetic and electric fields of lightning. Directional and distance information derived from the data are used to redundantly determine lightning position. This redundancy is used to correct consistent propagation errors. A comparison is made of the relative accuracy of VLF direction finders with a newer method to determine distance to and location of lightning by the ratio of magnetic-to-electric field as observed at 400 Hz. It was found that VLF direction finders can determine lightning positions with only one-half the accuracy of the method that uses the ratio of magnetic-to-electric field.