KB6NU's Ham Radio Blog
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Use VLF to detect lightning
Posted: 02 Jul 2014 11:00 AM PDT
http://www.kb6nu.com/use-vlf-to-detect-lightning/
Yesterday, my friend Ed, KD8OQG tweeeted:
Edward Vielmetti @vielmetti
a lightning detector, picking up lightning signals on VLF (!)
blitzortung.org/Documents/TOA_… @kb6nuÂ*@hoopycatÂ*#hamr
Ed is a bit of a severe weather geek, and is often Tweeting when severe
weather rolls through the Ann Arbor area. So, its only natural that he
would be interested in the Blitzortung project. The Blitzortung website
describes the project this way:
Blitzortung.org is a lightning detection network for the location of
electromagnetic discharges in the atmosphere (lightning discharges) based
on the time of arrival (TOA) and time of group arrival (TOGA) method. It
consists of several lightning receivers and one central processing server.
The stations transmit their data in short time intervals over the Internet
to our server. Every data sentence contains the precise time of arrival of
the received lightning discharge impulse (sferic) and the exact geographic
position of the receiver. With this information from all stations the exact
positions of the discharges are computed. The aim of the project is to
establish a low budget lightning location network with a high number of
stations. The price for the hardware used is less than 200 Euro. The sferic
positions are free accessible in raw format to all stations that transmit
their data to our server. The station owner can use the raw data for all
non-commercial purposes. The lightning activity of the last two hours is
additionally displayed on several public maps recomputed every minute.
Blitzortung.org is a community of station operators who transmit their data
to the central server, programmers who develop and/or implement algorithms
for the location or visualization of sferic positions, and people who
assist anyway to keep the system running. There is no restriction on
membership. All people who keep the network in operation are volunteers.
There is no fee and no contract. If a station stops pooling its data, the
server stops providing the access to the archive of sferics positions for
the user of that station. A detailed description about how to participate
to the network and how to setup an own receiver can be found in the
following document.
The website doesnt say how much a setup costs, but does says, If you are
interested to setup an own station then you can get the latest printed
circuit boards and the programmed micro controller from us. If you are not
from Germany, Austria, or Switzerland you can even get a complete
controller kit, a complete amplifier kit, ferrite rod antennas, and a GPS
module for cost price, if desired.
The Cloud is an interactive lamp and speaker system, designed to mimic a
thundercloud in both appearance and entertainment. Using motion sensors the
cloud detects a users presence and creates a unique lightning and thunder
show dictated by their movement.
Ryan Burns, one of Eds followers and head of A2 Geeks, suggested that
heÂ*get a Cloud and hook it to the detector. According to the Clouds
website, The Cloud is an interactive lamp and speaker system, designed to
mimic a thundercloud in both appearance and entertainment. Using motion
sensors the cloud detects a users presence and creates a unique lightning
and thunder show dictated by their movement. We would, of course, have to
get a version without the motion sensors so that we could interface our
lightning detector.
I volunteered that we could mount the detectors antennaÂ*to the tower at the
Hands-On Museum. Ironically, I think that wed have to use a lightning
arrestor on the feedline should we actually mount it outside.
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