Abstract
Lightning mapping systems based on perpendicular crossed baseline interferometer (ITF) technology have been developed rapidly in recent years. Several processing methods have been proposed to estimate the temporal location and spatial map of lightning strikes. In this paper, a single very high frequency (VHF) ITF is used to simulate and augment the lightning maps. We perform a comparative study of using different processing techniques and procedures to enhance the localization and mapping of lightning VHF radiation. The benchmark environment involves the use of different noise reduction and cross-correlation methods. Moreover, interpolation techniques are introduced to smoothen the correlation peaks for more accurate lightning localization. A positive narrow bipolar event (NBE) lightning discharge is analyzed and the mapping procedure is confirmed using both simulated and measured lightning signals. The results indicate that a good estimation of lightning radiation sources is achieved when using wavelet denoising and cross-correlations in wavelet-domain (CCWD) with a minimal error of 3.46°. The investigations carried out in this study confirm that the ITF mapping system could effectively map the lightning VHF radiation source.
Highlights
Lightning is a natural phenomenon that occurs in the atmosphere
We investigate three types of noise filtering approaches approaches including including bandpass filter (BPF), Kalman filter (KF) [23,24], and wavelet transform (WT)
The performance of the lightning mapping estimation was measured based on the number of sliding windows over the time course of the analyzed ITF lightning signals, where each pair of Az
Summary
Lightning is a natural phenomenon that occurs in the atmosphere. When electrical discharges are generated, electromagnetic radiations over different ranges of frequencies are produced, usually extending from the Ultra-Low Frequency (ULF) through the Ultra-High Frequency (UHF) [1]. The VHF lightning mapping has been traditionally performed using the TOA approach and narrow-band ITF systems to locate the radiation sources [13,14,15]. Different generalized cross-correlation techniques are used to estimate the TDOA in a segment-wise manner. These techniques include conventional time and frequency domain cross-correlation. These generalized cross-correlation methods are more sensitive to the embedded noise in the signal, which results in wrong TDOA estimations. To assess the performance of the proposed lightning mapping approach, we introduce a simulation technique to generate a broadband ITF lightning.
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