Lightning location systems detection efficiency: An approach using the Transmission Line (TL) engineering model

This paper describes a method for the development of a computational tool in order to verify the influence of some parameters of a Lightning Location System (LLS), operating in the Low Frequency (LF) range, in the measurement of electromagnetic waves emissions caused by negative cloud-to-ground lightning. The procedure was used to simulate the propagation of these waves, using as model of return current in the discharge channel the model of engineering type Transmission Line (TL) to represent the electric phenomenon generated by the lightning. A four-sensor LLS was adopted, initially considering an ideal lossless environment based on a reference work that was used for validation of the experiment. The following parameters were taken into account: electromagnetic wave propagation velocity in the environment, intensity of the peak of the current in the channel base and propagation velocity of the wavefront of the current along the channel, in order to measure their influence on Detection Efficiency (DE).