Lightning detection and data acquisition system
AssigneeVaisala Oyj
InventorsMartin J. Murphy, Kenneth L. Cummins, Alburt E. Pifer
Life of this patent
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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.
Claims48
A lightning detection system, comprising:
- a plurality of sources of data representative of a pulse train resulting from a lightning flash, said sources having different locations;
- and
- a central analyzer for receiving and analyzing said data so as to correlate a set of pulses in said pulse train across said sources using only a sub-set of the pulses of said set to produce an estimate of the location and the time of that portion of said lighting flash corresponding to said set of pulses.
A lightning detection system, comprising a sensing system comprising a plurality of sensors at different locations for sensing one or more pulses of a lightning flash, each sensor being adapted to measure the time of the sensors' sensing said one or more pulses with reference to a common time reference to produce data representative of said one or more pulses, wherein each of said sensors is adapted for synchronously decimating the data corresponding thereto for decreasing the time or bandwidth required to transmit said data over a communications channel.
A method for lightning detection, comprising:
- receiving data from a plurality of sources having different locations, said data being representative of a pulse train resulting from a lightning flash;
- and
- analyzing said data so as to correlate a set of pulses in said pulse train across said sources using only a sub-set of the pulses of said set to produce an estimate of the location and the time of that portion of said lightning flash corresponding to said set of pulses.
A method for lightning detection, comprising:
- providing a plurality of sensors at different locations for sensing one or more pulses of a lightning flash, each sensor being adapted to measure the time of the sensors' sensing said one or more pulses with reference to a common time reference to produce data representative of said one or more pulses;
- and
- synchronously decimating, at each of said sensors, the data corresponding thereto for decreasing the time or bandwidth required to transmit said data over a communications channel.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.