Preliminary Application of Long-Range Lightning Location Network with Equivalent Propagation Velocity in China

Abstract

The equivalent propagation method adopts a variable propagation velocity in lightning location, minimizing the location error caused by various factors in the long-range lightning location network. To verify the feasibility of this method, we establish a long-range lightning location network in China. A new method is used to extract the ground wave peak points of the lightning sferics and is combined with the equivalent propagation velocity method for lightning location. By comparing with the lightning data detected by the lightning locating system called advanced direction and time-of-arrival detecting (ADTD) that has been widely used for tens of years in China, the feasibility of this method is initially verified. Additionally, it is found that the relative detection efficiency of our long-range lightning location network can reach 53%, the average location error is 9.17 km, and the detection range can reach more than 3000 km. The equivalent propagation method can improve the average location accuracy by ~1.16 km, compared with the assumed light speed of lightning-radiated sferic from the lightning stroke point to the observation station. The 50th percentile of the equal propagation velocity is 0.998c, which may be used in the long-range lightning location networks.

Evaluation and revision of long-range single-site lightning location accuracy considering the time delay of ground wave

“…The multi-station lightning location data used in this paper are from a VLF LLSs established in China (Li et al, 2022;Zhang et al, 2022), the single-site equipment installed in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China. The single-site receives lightning signals in the range of about 100 Hz to 80 kHz, records LEMP waveform data by continuous acquisition, and stores them in a hard disk drive (HDD).…”

“…Figure 4A shows the geometric model of sferics propagating in EIWG. The signal propagates through multiple specular reflections of the earth's surface and the ionospheric D layer in the EIWG, the signal received by the station that arrives directly along the surface is called ground wave, and the signal that arrives after reflection from the ionosphere is called skywave (Li et al, 2022). Figure 4B shows a set of electric and magnetic field waveforms received by the single-site.…”

Location Accuracy Improvement of Long-range Lightning Detection Network In China by Compensating Ground Wave Propagation Delay

“…More details of the FDTD model can be found in Hou et al [12]. Li et al [30] detailed the characteristics of the waveform bank, which was simulated under the typical daytime and nighttime ionospheric conditions at the propagation path of 100 km to 3000 km. The sferic waveforms distort along the long propagation path.…”

“…A new long-range lightning location network in China, named the NUIST long-range lightning detection network (NUIST-N300), was established in 2021. Li et al [30] reported its preliminary application and used the equivalent propagation velocity method to reduce the location error caused by the propagation effect. They had to spend a great amount of calculation time obtaining the optimal location by choosing the lightning ground wave propagation speed from 0.95 c to 1.01 c (c is the speed of light).…”

Detection performance analysis of advanced direction time lightning detection system in China

“…Multiple factors, including sensors, data acquisition methods, return waveform recognition, positioning algorithm, etc. can affect the detection performance of lightning location network (Bennett et al, 2011;Nag et al, 2015;Suzuki et al, 2016;Li et al, 2022), and it is difficult to evaluate each factor one by one. Chen et al (Chen et al, 2013) proposed to use historical records of the lightning location data to evaluate the DE of lightning location network, and applied the method to the lightning location network in Yunnan Province.…”