Evaluation of U.S. National Lightning Detection Network performance characteristics using rocket-triggered lightning data acquired in 2004–2009

Nag, A.; Mallick, S.; Rakov, Vladimir A.; Howard, Joseph; Biagi, C. J.; Hill, J. D.; Uman, M. A.; Jordan, D. M.; Rambo, K. J.; Jerauld, J.; DeCarlo, B.A.; Cummins, K. L.; Cramer, John A.

doi:10.1029/2010jd014929

Cited by 81 publications

(105 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…The leading fast pulse with a distinct oscillatory feature (e.g., Dowden et al 2002, Fig. 2) is driven by the initial contact (i.e., return stroke) of a lightning stroke and can be used to estimate the peak current (Pessi et al 2009;Nag et al 2011). The trailing slow pulse with timescale longer than 1 ms is excited by the subsequent impulse current (Gomes and Cooray 1998), which makes the major contribution to the charge moment change (iCMC) within 2 ms after the return stroke by removing electric charge from the existing lightning channels (Lu et al 2009).…”

Section: Observations and Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In section 3, we validated the geolocation accuracy of ISUAL relative to individual sprite observations, using the National Lightning Detection Network (NLDN) data for the parent strokes of ISUAL sprites within the detection range of NLDN (Cummins et al 1998;Cummins and Murphy 2009). In addition, the NLDN provides an estimated peak current of sprite-producing strokes (e.g., Nag et al 2011), which can be used as a dataset for us to formulate an empirical approach to estimate the peak current of other sprite-producing strokes not detected by the NLDN. The distribution of ISUAL sprites near North America produced respectively by positive and negative CG strokes is presented in section 4, showing a considerable population of negative sprites over tropical oceans.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Analysis of lightning strokes associated with sprites observed by ISUAL in the vicinity of North America

Lu¹,

Cummer²,

Chen³

et al. 2017

Terr. Atmos. Ocean. Sci.

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We examined the broadband (< 1 Hz to 30 kHz) lightning sferics associated with 395 sprites observed near North America by the Imager of Sprites and Upper Atmospheric Lightning (ISUAL) onboard the FORMOSAT-2 satellite in a 12-year period from 2004 -2015. Our analysis indicates that the ISUAL dataset contains a significant fraction (69, or ~18%) of negative sprites, which were predominantly (> 80%) observed over oceanic and coastal thunderstorms mostly in tropical areas. The mean and median of impulse charge moment change (iCMC) associated with positive (negative) sprites are +346 C km (-709 C km) and +280 C km (-649 C km), respectively. The morphology and parent lightning properties (e.g., typically with high peak currents > -80 kA and large iCMCs > -300 C km) of negative sprites observed by the ISUAL are generally consistent with that documented in ground-based observations, but the ISUAL dataset does imply that sprites are sometimes produced by negative strokes with sub-critical iCMCs (less than -300 C km). Consequently, the future survey of global occurrence of sprites is desired to be based on complementary ground and space-borne observations.

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Section: Observations and Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysis of lightning strokes associated with sprites observed by ISUAL in the vicinity of North America

Lu¹,

Cummer²,

Chen³

et al. 2017

Terr. Atmos. Ocean. Sci.

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“…LLSs operating at low frequencies (LFs) combine the best of both worlds: with baselines of a few hundred of kilometers it is possible to cover countries as well as continents (e.g. Biagi et al, 2007;Nag et al, 2011;Mallick et al, 2014;Schulz et al, 2005;Antonescu and Burcea, 2010;Enno, 2011;Mäkelä et al, 2014), while still retaining a satisfactory level of performance in terms of LA and DE. While most LLSs provide supplementary information such as polarity and peak current of the lightning discharge, it is the spatial flash incidence that remains the main objective. This continuous interest in the spatial distribution of the lightning flash density N g is not surprising as it is not only of importance for climatological studies, but plays a vital role as well in the risk analysis for protecting structures and electronic systems against damage from lightning impacts to ground (see risk management in accordance with IEC 62305-2).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The European lightning location system EUCLID – Part 2: Observations

Poelman

Schulz

Diendorfer

et al. 2016

Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci.

111

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Abstract. Cloud-to-ground (CG) lightning data from the European Cooperation for Lightning Detection (EUCLID) network over the period 2006-2014 are explored. Mean CG flash densities vary over the European continent, with the highest density of about 6 km −2 yr −1 found at the intersection of the borders between Austria, Italy and Slovenia. The majority of lightning activity takes place between May and September, accounting for 85 % of the total observed CG activity. Furthermore, the thunderstorm season reaches its highest activity in July, while the diurnal cycle peaks around 15:00 UTC. A difference between CG flashes over land and sea becomes apparent when looking at the peak current estimates. It is found that flashes with higher peak currents occur in greater proportion over sea than over land.

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“…During recent years the performance of LLSs has received more and more attention (Nag et al, 2015). A direct method to determine the quality of a network, and therefore the values assigned to each lightning event, is by comparing the data against so-called ground-truth observations.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Those observations provide valuable information on the DE, location accuracy and in some cases even the peak current estimates retrieved from an LLS. This is done for instance by examining direct lightning strikes to instrumented towers (Diendorfer et al, 2000a, b;Pavanello et al, 2009;Romero et al, 2011;Schulz et al, 2012Schulz et al, , 2013Cramer and Cummins, 2014;Azadifar et al, 2016) through the use of rocket-triggered lightning (Jerauld et al, 2005;Nag et al, 2011;Mallick et al, 2014a, b, c) and/or by recording lightning strikes with highspeed video and E-field (electric field) measurements in open field (Biagi et al, 2007;Poelman et al, 2013a;Schulz et al, 2016). Although they are the best methods for retrieving robust information of a networks' performance, they are quite labor intensive when used to acquire a large enough dataset for a statistically reliable output.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysis of lightning outliers in the EUCLID network

et al. 2017

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Abstract. Lightning data as observed by the European Cooperation for Lightning Detection (EUCLID) network are used in combination with radar data to retrieve the temporal and spatial behavior of lightning outliers, i.e., discharges located in a wrong place, over a 5-year period from 2011 to 2016. Cloud-to-ground (CG) stroke and intracloud (IC) pulse data are superimposed on corresponding 5 min radar precipitation fields in two topographically different areas, Belgium and Austria, in order to extract lightning outliers based on the distance between each lightning event and the nearest precipitation. It is shown that the percentage of outliers is sensitive to changes in the network and to the location algorithm itself. The total percentage of outliers for both regions varies over the years between 0.8 and 1.7 % for a distance to the nearest precipitation of 2 km, with an average of approximately 1.2 % in Belgium and Austria. Outside the European summer thunderstorm season, the percentage of outliers tends to increase somewhat. The majority of all the outliers are low peak current events with absolute values falling between 0 and 10 kA. More specifically, positive cloud-toground strokes are more likely to be classified as outliers compared to all other types of discharges. Furthermore, it turns out that the number of sensors participating in locating a lightning discharge is different for outliers versus correctly located events, with outliers having the lowest amount of sensors participating. In addition, it is shown that in most cases the semi-major axis (SMA) assigned to a lightning discharge as a confidence indicator in the location accuracy (LA) is smaller for correctly located events compared to the semimajor axis of outliers.

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Evaluation of U.S. National Lightning Detection Network performance characteristics using rocket-triggered lightning data acquired in 2004–2009

Cited by 81 publications

References 3 publications

Analysis of lightning strokes associated with sprites observed by ISUAL in the vicinity of North America

Analysis of lightning strokes associated with sprites observed by ISUAL in the vicinity of North America

The European lightning location system EUCLID – Part 2: Observations

Analysis of lightning outliers in the EUCLID network

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