World coverage for single station lightning detection

Abstract

[1] This paper analyzes the possibility of using single station measurements of low-frequency electromagnetic waves to locate lightning occurring around much, and possibly all, of the world. The electromagnetic waves generated by lightning, which propagate through the Earth-ionosphere waveguide, are known as sferics. We combine a direction finding algorithm to compute the arrival azimuth of the recorded sferic along with a distance of propagation estimate to deduce the location of the lightning. While the methodology used for estimating the distance of propagation is described by Mackay and Fraser-Smith (2010), this paper analyzes the effectiveness of the method. We examine the limitations including those independent of station location and performance, and those which are station dependent. We analyze the geographic coverage attained from a single station along with the percentage of lightning emitting sferics that are recorded at the station and available for computing the lightning locations.

Systematic deviations in source direction estimates of Q‐bursts recorded at Nagycenk, Hungary

“…The conductivity of the Earth's crust is known to influence the properties of atmospheric electromagnetic waves explicitly [ Barr , ; Mackay and Fraser‐Smith , ; Aoki et al ., ]. Depending on their frequency, electromagnetic waves propagating in the Earth‐ionosphere waveguide penetrate into the ground and cause currents in conductive structures.…”

“…Wait formulated methods to incorporate the finite ground connectivity in calculation of the attenuation of VLF [ Wait , ] and ELF [ Wait , ] waves. Mackay and Fraser‐Smith [] successfully accommodated Wait's concept to evaluate the detection efficiency of a recording station for ELF/VLF sferics propagating over regions of different ground conductivities. Recently, Silber et al .…”