A lightning location system in China: its performances and applications

This paper describes the largest lightning location system in China-Guang Dong lightning location system (GDLLS), which only locates the electromagnetic fields radiated by individual return strokes in cloud-to-ground flashes. Using information gathered from 14 combined magnetic direction and time-of-arrival finder sensors, the GDLLS provides both real-time and historical lightning data to the electric utility industry. The real-time data include the time of lightning strokes, their location and polarity and an estimate of the peak current. In this paper, the performance of the GDLLS is addressed, including detection efficiency and location accuracy. The potential applications of lightning data collected by the GDLLS are discussed also for electric power utilities in the Guang Dong province.