Improved System for Locating Lightning Strikes Within Meters

A system for determining the locations of nearby lightning strikes from electric-field and acoustic measurements has been developed. This system evolved from the system described in "System Locates Lightning Strikes to Within Meters" (KSC-11992), NASA Tech Briefs, Vol. 24, No. 7 (July 2000), page 38. The basic concept of both the present and the previous system is an extension of the concept of estimating the distance of a lightning strike from the difference between the times of arrival of the visible flash and the audible thunder. Like the previous system, the present system locates lightning strikes to within errors of the order of a meter. However, the present system is more compact and more readily deployable, as explained below.