LINET proves its quality at Kennedy Space Center

In nowcast proves its quality in the US

In cooperation with Prof. T. C. Marshall and Prof. M. Stolzenburg, highly renowned scientists in the the resarch field of Atmospheric Electricity and teaching at the Department of Physics and Astronomy of the University of Mississippi, nowcast has successfully proved the quality of LINET within a measuring campaign at Kennedy Space Center in Florida (KSC).

NASA operates a highly accurate lightning detection network in the area of KSC, composed of the VLF-network CGLSS for detection of ground strokes, and the VHF network 4DLSS for location of cloud lightning. The 4DLSS is capable of mapping lightning channels by locating VHF source points.

nowcast has set up a 7-sensor LINET system around KSC in order to compare LINET and 4DLSS data. The most important goal was to investigate and verify the significance of emission heights, which are provided by the LINET system for each IC stroke.

The result has been convincing. LINET locates efficiently and accurately all ground- and cloud flashes seen by the NASA system. The most striking observations are:

• LINET IC strokes are reported with emission heights, which match perfectly with the 4DLSS lightning channels
• LINET IC strokes occur right inside the 4DLSS lightning channels

The measuring campaign proves clearly that LINET is suited for comprehensive reporting of cloud lightning by utilizing relatively simple VLF/LF methods, and enables better understanding of lightning discharge mechanisms.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• KSC
• Kennedy Space Center
• nowcast
• Storm
• Cell
• LINET
• flash
• stroke
• alert
• visualization