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A Method for Accurate Lightning Strike Prediction and Recording

Detailed Technology Description

None

Supplementary Information

Inventor: Shi, Xingang | Chiu, Dah-Ming
Priority Number: US8681628B2
IPC Current: H04L001226
US Class: 370235 | 370230 | 370252
Assignee Applicant: The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Title: Systems and methods for determining top spreaders
Usefulness: Systems and methods for determining top spreaders
Novelty: Processing system for determining top spreaders from hosts, has estimator that selects second set of hosts from first set of hosts as top spreaders

Industry

ICT/Telecom

Sub Category

IT System

Others

*Abstract

Invention

According to the National Lightning Safety Institute, the total annual cost of lightning damage is $4-5 billion. The ever increasing reliance on microelectronics for critical business and governmental activity amplifies the potential damage that lightning can cause. A new technology developed by researchers at the University of Florida can help mitigate that risk: a novel method for accurate lightning strike warning and after-the-fact strike location determination. An on-site instrument provides a 1 millisecond warning of an impending lightning strike to the site and after-the-fact evidence that lightning has struck within 100 meters of the instrument. Better accuracy can be obtained if multiple instruments spaced about 100 meters apart are used. After-the-fact strike location determination is essential in insurance issues such as determining whether a given structure fire was lightning-caused and in searching for potential lightning-caused damage such as on power transmission lines where an instrument could be placed on each transmission-line tower.

Applications

• A trigger for proactive lightning protection
• After-the-fact proof of the occurrence of lightning

Advantages

• Provides a warning signal up to 1 millisecond prior to any lightning strike within a 100 m radius, enabling protection systems to be proactive
• Provides an improvement over present location determination methods that have an accuracy of 500 meters but detect only 80 to 90 percent of the cloud-to-ground lightning discharges; an accuracy of 100 m can be achieved with a single instrument, and that accuracy can be further improved with multiple instruments while recording every cloud-to-ground lightning within its range

Technology

Current lightning forecasting and recording technologies employ sensors that record the electric and magnetic fields radiated by lightning after it has struck the ground, with a location accuracy of about 500 m and a detection efficiency of 80 to 90 percent. Researchers at the University of Florida and Florida Institute of Technology have found that there are unique and characteristic co-incident x-ray and electromagnetic signals prior to a lightning strike observed at very close range, and that the presence of these signals signifies an imminent strike within 1 ms and 100 m. The effects are only measurable over a range of 100 m and just before lightning strikes an object on the ground, yielding the capability to pinpoint the lightning strike within a radius of 100 m of a single instrument. Using the sensors in a networked array can further reduce the location error, increasing the accuracy.

*Principal Investigator

Name: Martin Uman

Department:

Name: Douglas Jordan

Department:

Name: Hamid Rassoul

Department:

Name: Jason Jerauld

Department:

Name: Joseph Dwyer

Department:

Name: Keith Rambo

Department:

Name: Vladimir Rakov

Department:

Country/Region

USA