A two-station lightning location method based on a combination of difference of time of arrival and amplitude attenuation

We propose a lightning location method that uses a combination of peak electric or magnetic field amplitude information at two spatially separated sensors and the difference of time of arrival information at the same two stations to obtain an estimate of the location of a lightning strike point. We derive analytical expressions for the coordinates of the fix and we describe a possible method to eliminate the ambiguity that stems from the quadratic nature of the location equation and which leads to two fixes. We investigate the effect on the location accuracy of errors introduced by noise. A Monte Carlo analysis is carried out on a single base line and the errors are found to be reasonable for regions close to the sensors and to worsen for very distant lightning and along the symmetry axis between the sensors.