Airborne sensor for passive determination of the distance up to lightning source

The AA-method for lightning location detection is based on estimating of magnitude of radio-frequency signals, which are generated by electric discharges in thunderstorms. On average, the more received signal of lightning the less distance between lightning and receiver is. Distance can be estimated with 50% error due to the statistical nature of lightning radiated power. The EH-method is based on the measurement of electric and magnetic components ratio of received radiofrequency signal field of lightning. The distance up to lightning can be estimated by comparison of measured EH ratio with theoretical one for various distances. EH method provides an accuracy of about 10% for distances less than 60 km. The third known method (HH-method) is based on measurements of two magnetic components ratio H₀=H(ω ₁)/H(ω₂) at two diverse frequencies ω ₁ and ω₂. The HH method can provide an error about 10% in the case of averaging H₀ over the number of discharges for distance up to 200 km. However, at R<50 km the error increases significantly. Finally, the authors authors propose a new method (EE-method), which is based on measuring the intensity of the electric component of electromagnetic field in two orthogonal planes. The aim of this paper is to present the EE-method, which has some essential advantages and can be used in order to improve the techniques of distance estimation up to a lightning discharge from one point with airborne sensors