System and method for detecting high-risk-lightning strikes for use in predicting and identifying wildfire ignition locations and powerline damage points

Abstract

A system and method for detecting in real-time High-Risk-Lightning (HRL) strikes and sending out alerts to responsible personnel to allow for earlier responses to lightning caused fire ignitions, and powerline damages, to help maintain and/or reduce the chance of spread by the wildfire and reduce the amount of powerline downtime. The system and method allow for HRL events and fire ignitions/powerline damage points to be detected preferably within seconds. The system and method can use a network of detectors, data from environmental satellites and/or other environmental data sources, powerline data, and novel AI/algorithms for signal processing for relatively quickly locating fire ignition spots and powerline damage points. Thus, the system and method provide for actionable wildfire intelligence and powerline damage potential in real-time and for relatively quickly and accurately sending out alerts when an HRL event has been determined. Cameras and drones can be used to provide real-time visualization at the location of the HRL event to verify or monitor any fire ignition or smoldering at the area of the HRL event, and to check the potential damage that the HRL strike has caused to the powerline. In one embodiment, all of the main components for the detection system can be located together out in the field and preferably connected to a pole or other vertical or substantially vertically oriented object. The system can also include a concentric antenna configuration for the high frequency antenna and low frequency antenna. The HRL data, including location coordinates, can be used for other related third party uses, such as inputs for a fire spread modeling software to yield a more accurate fire spread model, as well as for producing fire related maps, such as Community Wildfire Protection Plan maps that are relied on by the public.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.