A review of lightning protection concepts introduced by Benjamin Franklin (18th century) and James Clerk Maxwell (19th century) is given. Modern approaches to lightning protection of various structures and systems are discussed. In particular, the widely used electrogeometrical model (one version of which is the Rolling Sphere Method) and the topological shielding are presented. Bonding require...

Due to the expected climate change driven increase of extreme weather events, damage risks for infrastructure and buildings are rising. Hence spatial decision-support material is necessary to enhance risk management and planning strategies. The presented study contributes to this topic by means of an analysis of cloud-to-ground lightning patterns and their impact on structural facilities using ...

OBJECTIVE To educate athletic trainers and others about the dangers of lightning, provide lightning-safety guidelines, define safe structures and locations, and advocate prehospital care for lightning-strike victims. BACKGROUND Lightning may be the most frequently encountered severe-storm hazard endangering physically active people each year. Millions of lightning flashes strike the ground an...

Using FORTE photodiode detector (PDD) observations of lightning, we have determined the geographic distribution of nighttime flash rate density. We estimate the PDD flash detection efficiency to be 62% for total lightning through comparison to lightning observations by the TRMM satellite’s Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS), using cases in which FORTE and TRMM viewed the same storm. We present here...

[1] Seasonal variations on lightning activity of precipitation systems over south China and Taiwan before and after the onset of Mei‐Yu have been observed by the lightning imager sensor (LIS) on board the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite. Lightning storms before Mei‐Yu onset show higher probability of lightning, higher flash rate, and larger radar reflectivity in the mixed‐p...

A new method to calculate lightning fatality risk is presented in order to develop a way to identify the lightning risk in areas where lightning fatality data are not available. This new method uses GIS software to multiply lightning flash density and population density on a grid and display the results on a map. A comparison to the known lightning fatality data was done to verify the method. T...

Photogrammetric survey of lightning discharges is a very challenging task as lightning discharges are very transient, unpredictable, and random structures. In order to acquire images of lightning discharges outdoors, a stereo image acquisition system has been designed and implemented. Two cameras observe a limited area and autonomously detect occurrences of lightning discharges within their fie...

The electrodynamic properties of intense oceanic lightning discharges are compared to intense continental lightning discharges. Particularly intense negative lightning discharges with absolute charge moments > 2 kC·km occur more often over the oceans than over the continents during April 1998. Intense continental lightning discharges, with negative and positive polarity, and intense positive oc...

The electrodynamic properties of intense oceanic lightning discharges are compared to intense continental lightning discharges. Particularly intense negative lightning discharges with absolute charge moments > 2 kC·km occur more often over the oceans than over the continents during April 1998. Intense continental lightning discharges, with negative and positive polarity, and intense positive oc...

Lightning causes deaths, injuries, damages, and significant costs and losses around the world. The global lightning flash rate is in the range of 40 to 100 lightning flashes per second, of which about 30 % are cloud-to-ground flashes. The development of theoretical and experimental researches is crucial for a better understanding of the physical phenomenon and for the characterization of lightn...