Lightning detection and data acquisition system
AssigneeVaisala Oyj
InventorsMartin J. Murphy, Kenneth L. Cummins, Alburt E. Pifer
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A lightning detection and data acquisition system. A plurality of remote programmable sensor is utilized to detect cloud to ground and IC lightning strikes. Analog representations of the lightning strikes are converted to digital signals. The digital signals are classified according to user changeable criteria. The classified digital signals are compressed and optionally decimated. The compressed information is transmitted to a central location where it is decompressed and used to correlate the location, magnitude, and travel path of the detected lightning strikes.
Claims60
A lightning detection system, comprising:
- a source of an electrical detection signal representative of an electromagnetic field produced by a lightning discharge;
- an analog-to-digital converter, responsive to said electrical detection signal, for producing a digital detection signal;
- a digital processor for determining the type of lightning discharge that produced said electromagnetic field based on characteristics of said digital detection signal, said digital processor producing digital data characterizing lightning discharges that are identified;
- a data compression component for reducing the amount of data needed to characterize a lightning discharge so as to decrease the time or bandwidth required to transmit data representative of a series of lightning discharges;
- and
- a data transmission component for transmitting said characterizing data over a communications channel.
The lightning detection system of clam 4, wherein said data compression component further produces, for said one or more additional discharges in said series of discharges, data representative of the relative amplitude of each said additional discharge with respect to the amplitude of said largest amplitude discharge.
A lightning detection system, comprising:
- an antenna for producing, in response to an electromagnetic field produced by a lightning discharge, an electrical detection signal representative of said field;
- an analog-to-digital converter, responsive to said electrical detection signal, for producing a digital detection signal;
- a digital processor for determining the type of lightning discharge that produced said electromagnetic field based on characteristics of said digital detection signal, said digital processor producing digital data characterizing lightning discharges that are identified;
- a data decimation component for synchronously decimating said characterizing data to reduce the data for transmission;
- and
- a data transmission component for transmitting said decimated characterizing data over a communications channel.
A lightning detection system, comprising:
- a plurality of sources of data representative of a series of lightning discharges;
- and
- a central analyzer for receiving and analyzing said data representative of a series of lightning discharges, said central analyzer including a discharge correlation component for correlating sets of data representing series of discharges from respective said sources to determine the time or location of one or more discharges.
A method for detecting lightning, comprising:
- producing in response to an electromagnetic field produced by a lightning discharge an electrical detection signal representative of said electromagnetic field;
- producing a digital detection signal representative of said electrical detection signal;
- determining the type of lightning discharge that produced said electromagnetic field based on characteristics of said digital detection signal and producing digital data characterizing lightning discharges that are so determined;
- reducing the amount of data needed to characterize a lightning discharge so as to decrease the time or bandwidth required to transmit data representative of a series of lightning discharges;
- and
- transmitting said characterizing data over a communications channel.
A method for detecting lightning, comprising:
- producing in response to an electromagnetic field produced by a lightning discharge, an electrical detection signal representative of said field;
- producing a digital detection signal responsive to said electrical detection signal;
- determining the type of lightning discharge that produced said electromagnetic field based on characteristics of said digital detection signal and producing digital data characterizing lightning discharges that are identified;
- synchronously decimating said characterizing data to reduce the data for transmission;
- and
- transmitting said decimated characterizing data over a communications channel.
A method for detecting lightning, comprising:
- providing a plurality of sources of data representative of a series of lightning discharges;
- and
- receiving said data representative of a series of lightning discharges at a central location;
- and
- correlating sets of data representing a series of discharges from respective said sources to determine the time or location of one or more discharges.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.