Tropical lightning stroke data collected and analyzed by computer based lightning detecting station

Lightning is a main cause of electric utility outages and equipment damage throughout the world. The authors propose a flexible and reliable lightning detection and location system in order to take protective measures against such lightning damage. The system is based on standard PC hardware and software. They discuss several tropical lightning stroke characteristics found with the help of the described equipment. They show that lightning flash duration and inter-stroke interval as the negative lightning peak current measured by the station are similar to the data collected by alternative lightning location systems. They also discover parameters of the so called "isolated pulse" and irregular negative stroke. Good agreement of determined stroke parameters with data found in the literature demonstrates the capabilities of the presented lightning counter station, both as a lightning detection and location network unit as well as a lightning physics investigation system.