Acceptance of Lightning Detectors and Localization Systems under Different Damping Conditions

Abstract The acceptance of individual lightning detectors, idealized detection networks using both loop antenna and time of arrival techniques, and the Swedish lightning localization network have been investigated. The calculations were based on Weibull-distributed lightning signal strengths and the model of an exponentially damped spherical wave for the lightning pulse propagation. For a real network, account has been taken for the different damping of pulse paths due to the land/water distribution. The influence of different damping of the lightning pulses on the performance of lightning detection and localization was found to be very strong. The time of arrival method was more sensitive to the damping effects. The technique presented in this paper can be used for maximizing the acceptance quality of a planned network and for weighting lightning density maps obtained by a lightning localization system.