The realization of triggering lightning on DBS tower and characteristic analysis of lightning current waveform

Artificially triggering lightning on distributed base station (DBS) tower was realized by taking a series of measures including mounting the rocket launchers separately from the tower, connecting nylon line as a buffer, adding PVC pipes to the tower platform railing and making the lightning current measuring chamber insulated from the iron tower. Five lightning discharges were triggered on DBS tower in 2013, three of which were with complete lightning current information. There were totally 18 return strokes (RSs) involved in these three lightning discharges. The average peak current of the RSs was -14.94 kA; the average 10-90% rise time was 0.38 μs and the average half-peak width was 21.54μs. Results showed that the characteristic of the lightning current waveform of triggered lightning on DBS tower was similar to that of classical artificially triggered lightning on the ground.