Topic: lighting strikes: electromagnetic pulse

[funsutton]

Ambient describes how their lighting detector works in this way:

Personal lightning detectors work by detecting the electromagnetic pulse (EMP) emitted by a lightning strike. By measuring the strength of the detected EMP, the device can then estimate how far away the detected strike was.

So my question is this: Are all emitted electromagnetic pulses in the same area the same intensity? For example, if my lightning detector picks up a strike that is 5 miles away from my house to the east, where a small storm cell is located, are all the electromagnetic pulses emitted by lighting strikes in that small cell going to be the same intensity, so that they all register as 5 miles away? Or could some some of them be weaker so that the lighting detector thinks they are 12 miles away? Or the inverse, that some could be stronger so that the detector would think they are 2 miles away?

Just trying to understand how all of this works.

[Storm017]

If it is based off the AS3935 chip, download the AS3935 datasheet. https://www.mouser.com/datasheet/2/588/ams_AS3935_Datasheet_EN_v5-1214568.pdf

[K2GW]

Cool.  It looks like that chip displays a distance to the leading edge of the storm, essentially the closest strike.  Thanks

[miraculon]

Ambient describes how their lighting detector works in this way:

Personal lightning detectors work by detecting the electromagnetic pulse (EMP) emitted by a lightning strike. By measuring the strength of the detected EMP, the device can then estimate how far away the detected strike was.

So my question is this: Are all emitted electromagnetic pulses in the same area the same intensity? For example, if my lightning detector picks up a strike that is 5 miles away from my house to the east, where a small storm cell is located, are all the electromagnetic pulses emitted by lighting strikes in that small cell going to be the same intensity, so that they all register as 5 miles away? Or could some some of them be weaker so that the lighting detector thinks they are 12 miles away? Or the inverse, that some could be stronger so that the detector would think they are 2 miles away?

Just trying to understand how all of this works.

Some strike data includes the estimated current of the discharge. Some are many tens of kA, others on the lower end. CG vs. CC (Cloud-Ground, or Cloud-Cloud) have different characteristics as well. The short answer is "no" they are not all the same intensity. In my opinion this is a fundamental problem with single-point lightning detectors such as the AS3935 and Boltek. I only trust TOA/TOGA based on multiple networked detectors. I participate in Blitzortung, and host a sensor for TOA Systems.

Dr. Uman has published some good books on lightning. This one might be a good place to start: https://www.amazon.com/All-About-Lightning-Martin-Uman/dp/048625237X There are a number of books on the subject by Dr. Uman and others.

Greg H.

[funsutton]

Some strike data includes the estimated current of the discharge. Some are many tens of kA, others on the lower end. CG vs. CC (Cloud-Ground, or Cloud-Cloud) have different characteristics as well. The short answer is "no" they are not all the same intensity. In my opinion this is a fundamental problem with single-point lightning detectors such as the AS3935 and Boltek. I only trust TOA/TOGA based on multiple networked detectors. I participate in Blitzortung, and host a sensor for TOA Systems.

Dr. Uman has published some good books on lightning. This one might be a good place to start: https://www.amazon.com/All-About-Lightning-Martin-Uman/dp/048625237X There are a number of books on the subject by Dr. Uman and others.

Greg H.

Thanks for the info. I had a suspicion they were all different.

I'll take the location data with a grain of salt.