Lightning strike induction system and method
AssigneeNippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation
InventorsToshihisa MASUDA, Jun KATO, Masato MARUYAMA
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A flight object included in a Faraday cage, a power supply unit included in the Faraday cage and supplies power to the flight object, a first voltage-dependent switch connected between the Faraday cage and one of power supply lines that supplies power to the power supply unit, a second voltage-dependent switch connected between the Faraday cage and the other of power supply lines, a power supply device provided at an end of the power supply line on the ground surface side, a third voltage-dependent switch connected between one output terminal of the power supply device and the ground, and a fourth voltage-dependent switch connected between the other output terminal of the power supply device and the ground.
Claims6
A lightning guiding system comprising:
- a flight object that is included in a Faraday cage;
- a first power supply circuit that is included in the Faraday cage and supplies power to the flight object;
- a first voltage-dependent switch that is connected between the Faraday cage and one of power supply lines for supplying power to the first power supply circuit;
- a second voltage-dependent switch that is connected between the Faraday cage and another of the power supply lines;
- a second power supply circuit that is provided at an end portion of the power supply line on a ground surface side;
- a third voltage-dependent switch that is connected between one output terminal of the second power supply circuit and the ground;
- and
- a fourth voltage-dependent switch that is connected between another output terminal of the second power supply circuit and the ground.
A lightning guiding method comprising:
- causing a flight object to fly between a lightning originating point in midair where lightning occurs and a ground surface;
- supplying power to the flight object by a first power supply circuit;
- and
- guiding a lightning surge
- i) from lightning that has struck a Faraday cage including the flight object and the first power supply circuit to the ground via a first voltage-dependent switch connected between the Faraday cage and one of power supply lines that supply power to the first power supply circuit and a third voltage-dependent switch connected between the one of the power supply lines and the ground;
- or
- ii) to the ground via a second voltage-dependent switch connected between another of the power supply lines supplying power to the power supply and a fourth voltage-dependent switch connected between the other of the power supply lines and the ground.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.