A New Approach of 3D Lightning Location Based on Pearson Correlation Combined with Empirical Mode Decomposition

Yanhui Wang,Yingchang Min,Guo Zhao,Yali Liu

doi:10.3390/rs13193883

Abstract

To improve the accuracy of pulse matching and the mapping quality of lightning discharges, the Pearson correlation method combined with empirical mode decomposition (EMD) is introduced for discharge electric field pulse matching. This paper uses the new method to locate the lightning channels of an intra-cloud (IC) lightning flash and a cloud-to-ground (CG) lightning flash and analyzes the location results for the two lightning flashes. The results show that this method has a good performance in lightning location. Compared with the pulse-peak feature matching method, the positioning results of the new method are significantly improved, which is mainly due to the much larger number of positioning points (matched pulses). The number of located radiation sources has increased by nearly a factor of seven, which can significantly improve the continuity of the lightning channel and clearly distinguish the developmental characteristics. In the CG flash, there were three negative recoil streamers in the positive leader channel. After the three negative recoil streamers were finished, taking approximately 1 ms, 12 ms, and 2 ms, respectively, the negative leader channel underwent a K-process. The three negative recoil streamers are not connected to the K-processes in the negative leader channel. We think that the three negative recoil streamers may have triggered the three K-processes, respectively.

Highlights

IntroductionElectromagnetic radiation emitted during lightning breakdown, and the location and structure of lightning can be mapped out by locating multiple radiation sources
Electromagnetic radiation emitted during lightning breakdown, and the location and structure of lightning can be mapped out by locating multiple radiation sources.The application of modern signal processing technology and high-speed data acquisition technology has improved the ability and level of lightning detection
An intra-cloud (IC) lightning flash and a cloud-to-ground (CG) lightning flash were recorded from a nocturnal thunderstorm

Summary

Introduction

Electromagnetic radiation emitted during lightning breakdown, and the location and structure of lightning can be mapped out by locating multiple radiation sources. The application of modern signal processing technology and high-speed data acquisition technology has improved the ability and level of lightning detection. Interferometric mapping [1] is one method of lightning location, and the time-of-arrival (TOA) technique is another major method for lightning location. The TOA technique [2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10] has been widely used to locate lightning radiation sources. The TOA method is roughly divided into four steps, namely, signal acquisition, data preprocessing, pulse extraction and pulse matching, and solving the location and occurrence time of the radiation source.

Methods

Results

Conclusion