Publication Date:
2020-10-27
Description:
The U.S. National Lightning Detection Network (NLDN) underwent a complete sensor upgrade in 2013 followed by a central processor upgrade in 2015. These upgrades produced about a factor-of-five improvement in the detection efficiency of cloud lightning flashes and about one additional cloud pulse geo-located per flash. However, they also re-aggravated a historical problem with the tendency to misclassify a population of low-current positive discharges as cloud-to-ground strokes when, in fact, most are probably cloud pulses. Furthermore, less than 0.1% of events were poorly geo-located because the contributing sensor data were either improperly associated or simply under-utilized by the geo-location algorithm. To address these issues, Vaisala developed additional improvements to the central processing system, which became operational on November 7, 2018. This paper describes updates to the NLDN between 2013-2018 and then focuses on the effects of classification algorithm changes and a simple means to normalize classification across upgrades.
Print ISSN:
0739-0572
Electronic ISSN:
1520-0426
Topics:
Geography
,
Geosciences
,
Physics
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