There is actually a lot of information on lightening observation. If you have access to a university library. Some public libraries have on-line databases you can search too. Google is not so good at this as most of the papers are in journals where you need a subscription, or more likely a library that has a subscription.
I used to own a sail boat and took an interest in lightening and red a bunch about it a few years back. You can guess why. On a boat on the ocean you are very exposed, If a storm comes you can't simply get off the water so there you are living under a 65 foot aluminum pole which is the tallest conductor for miles and miles around. So what to do about it? I looked around and the most of the answers where coming from the University of Florida. They have some good "How To" publications if you want to survive direct hits (to cover the sailing example) and also theory but about detection, they have a "lightening observatory" there are there are papers describing the instruments. They observe the normal LF but also up in VHF and even x-ray detectors. Techniques are described for determining the types of strikes (polarity) and some time they cn see plrity reversals in cloudsand cloud to cloud discharges. Once you find a few survey papers they will have a long list of citations and you can hunt down those papers. A good search phrase is *"Lightning Observatory in Gainesville "* I think before anyone builds any detector it might help ask what data you want. Are you wanting to simply detect that lighting is nearby so you can disconnect equipment or do you want to characterize the lightening in some way? It turns out almost always you need to know the location and this means you need to make observations from sites that are some miles apart. What a good TN application. You need to have good time so you can combine the measurements. What I learned about the boat is that I needed a VERY good conducting path from the mast to the saltwater. This was made somewhat easy on my boat because I had a 7,000 pound lead keel in contact with water (except for some paint) and the mast was keel stepped. Give the current a nice easy straight line path and it will take it and not bother you. On Sat, Jun 28, 2014 at 6:52 AM, Brian Lloyd <br...@lloyd.com> wrote: > On Fri, Jun 27, 2014 at 11:34 PM, DaveH <i...@blackmountainforge.com> > wrote: > > > > > I also searched for "Lightning" and found nothing about detecting nearby > > strikes, only about protection. Searched from around 1980 back through > > 1940. > > > > There are a number of products on the market that make use of lightning > detection and ranging. The BF Goodrich "Stormscope" is based on that. There > have to be some documents around on its design. It is, in essence, a LF ADF > and somehow qualifies the envelope to deduce range to the strike which it > then displays to the pilot. > > -- > Brian Lloyd > Lloyd Aviation > 706 Flightline Drive > Spring Branch, TX 78070 > br...@lloyd.com > +1.916.877.5067 > _______________________________________________ > time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com > To unsubscribe, go to > https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts > and follow the instructions there. > -- Chris Albertson Redondo Beach, California _______________________________________________ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
