Cloud-to-Ground Lightning in Malaysia: A Review Study

Abstract

Lightning has been the major cause of power interruptions in Malaysia. Malaysia is located near the equator having approximately 200 thunder days per year. It is known to be among the highest lightning activity country worldwide. TNB as the main power supply utility in Malaysia has made an effort to reduce the power interruptions via installation of Lightning Detection Network (LDN) in 1994. This paper presents the history leading to modern LDN that capture lightning radiation fields at multiple remote sensors. The network has undergone a series of improvement between 2004 and 2009 in response to evolving detection technologies and requirements. Recent analyses on actual performance of the current LDN are also summarized. The paper includes short and long term requirements for improving the lightning measurements needed to address some open scientific questions and fill the needs of emerging applications.

Correlation analysis between lightning flashes and rainfall rate during a flash flood thunderstorm

“…The Malaysian Meteorological Services were reported many lightning and thunderstorms events with an average of 200 thunder days per year [24]. As discussed by Wooi et al [25], in Malaysia, only 14% to 31% of total CG lightning events were positive lightning, the rest of CG lightning events were negative lightning which was 82%. Chan and Mohamed [26] also examined the occurrence of tropical +CG lightning were 21.91% and 78.09% were -CG flashes in Pekan, Malaysia.…”

Development of GIS-based Ground Flash Density and its Statistical Analysis for Lightning Performance Evaluation of Transmission Lines in Peninsular Malaysia

“…Lightning activity in topical countries is reported to be related to the monsoon season (Dewan et al, 2022;Isa et al, 2021;Kamra & Kumar, 2021;Rawi et al, 2017Rawi et al, , 2018Wooi et al, 2016). Peninsular Malaysia has four monsoon seasons: the Northeast Monsoon (December to March), the Southwest Monsoon (June to September), and the two shorter periods of inter-monsoon seasons (April to May and October to November).…”

“…Bhd. installed a Lightning Location System (LLS), also known as a Lightning Detection Network (LDN), in Peninsular Malaysia in 1994 (Wooi et al, 2016). The LLS determines the coordinates of cloud-to-ground lightning strikes using the Time of Arrival (TOA) and Magnetic Direction Finding (MDF) principles (Abdullah et al, 2008).…”

“…The LLS determines the coordinates of cloud-to-ground lightning strikes using the Time of Arrival (TOA) and Magnetic Direction Finding (MDF) principles (Abdullah et al, 2008). The original LLS had 7 lightning sensors but has been upgraded several times (Abdullah et al, 2008;Wooi et al, 2016), as shown in Figure 1. Figure 2 shows the location of the latest upgraded lightning sensors, denoted as 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, in Peninsular Malaysia as of 2015.…”