Tracing movement of thundercloud based on network-distributed lightning electric field sensors

According to the changes and characteristics of electric field in the atmosphere when lightning occurs, this paper used mathematical model to calculate the movement of thundercloud. The atmospheric electric field data during lightning were provided by wide-area distributed sensors. According to the changes of electromagnetic field at different time points of lightning process and the weight distribution of collected data, positions of thundercloud at different time points were determined. Then, interpolation polynomial and least squares fitting were used for compensation and curve fitting. Finally, the general movement trend of thundercloud was visually presented. Result indicated that the simulated movement of thundercloud was consistent with the actual one detected by professional weather radar. Thus, the method proposed here can serve as a new method for forecasting lightning and shortening the forecast time.