Featuring the thunderstorm activity using lightning data provided by the Romanian Lightning Detection and Location Network

The paper presents some of the results issued from the statistical analysis of the events recorded by the Romanian Lightning Detection and Location Network (RDLN) during three years of activity (2003 to 2005). General features of the lightning activity over the Romanian territory were obtained using GIS software, namely the regional distributions of the keraunic level and the flash density. The assessment of lightning exposure for transmission lines was realized by detecting lightning events inside the exposure zones associated to the overhead lines´ path. Several criteria to establish appropriate dimensions for the exposure zones were tried, in order to compensate the inherent uncertainty associated to the impact location. The results of the basic and advanced statistical analyze of the collected lightning data are presented and compared to the overall distributions. We conclude with some general observations on the use of lightning data by power utilities.