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en:about [2016/06/20 11:47] tobi Copied from project description |
en:about [2018/08/18 06:03] gerbold [Introduction] |
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- | The aim of the project is to accomplish a low budget but high accurate world-wide lightning location | + | ====== About ====== |
+ | |||
+ | This Wiki will continually change due to further developments and improvements. Please edit it yourself. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Blitzortung.org is a world-wide non-commercial low-cost community-based Time-of-Arrival | ||
+ | lightning detection and lightning location network. | ||
+ | |||
+ | <note important>The system is made for private and entertainment | ||
+ | purposes. The domain Blitzortung.org is not an official information service for lightning | ||
+ | data. A commercial use of data from Blitzortung.org is strongly prohibited, even by the users | ||
+ | that send data to our servers.</note> | ||
+ | |||
+ | This Wiki can change without further notice. Publishing this Wiki or excerpts of it on websites not under our control is unwanted. | ||
+ | ===== Introduction ===== | ||
+ | original source(([[http://en.blitzortung.org/Compendium/Documentations/Documentation_2014-05-11_Red_PCB_10.4_PCB_12.3_PCB_13.1_PCB_14.1.pdf|Documentation System RED]], chapter 1)) (([[https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KzPZJW0ErInFtfTCmhNhSZTOpg6N2bgZDyIxkh_DRVs/pub?1532944531#h.iubpod4vxyrx|Documentation System BLUE]], chapter 1)) | ||
+ | |||
+ | The aim of this project is to accomplish a low budget high accurate world-wide lightning location | ||
network based on a high number of receiver sites spaced close to each other, typically separated by | network based on a high number of receiver sites spaced close to each other, typically separated by | ||
- | 50 km - 250 km. Those stations transmit their data to a central server, where the stroke locations are | + | 50 km - 250 km. The stations transmit their data to a central computing server, where the strike locations are |
computed by the arrival times of the signals. | computed by the arrival times of the signals. | ||
+ | |||
The station operators are volunteers who bought and assembled the hardware by themselves. | The station operators are volunteers who bought and assembled the hardware by themselves. | ||
There are also volunteer programmers who develop and/or implement algorithms for the location | There are also volunteer programmers who develop and/or implement algorithms for the location | ||
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data for a longer time period, the server stops providing the access to the archive of sferic positions | data for a longer time period, the server stops providing the access to the archive of sferic positions | ||
for the corresponding user. | for the corresponding user. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Blitzortung.org is completely different to other data collection platforms as for example marinetraffic.com | ||
+ | or flightradar24.com. Ships and airplanes already know their exact position. They send their positions by radio. | ||
+ | The information can be received with simple receivers and transferred over the Internet to a data server. | ||
+ | Receiving and sending the received position is not time-critical. On the data server nothing needs to be calculated. | ||
+ | The data is only collected and visualized. To receive the position of a ship or aircraft, one receiving station | ||
+ | is sufficient. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Lightning location, on the other hand, is much more complicated. The waveforms of the signals must be sampled | ||
+ | with high frequency (512 values with at least 500 KHz) and assigned with an accurate absolute time stamp (+/- 1 usec). | ||
+ | The exact location of the detector is extremely important. An absolute microsecond accurate time stamp and an | ||
+ | accurate position of the receiving detector can only be obtained by a GPS module. On the computing server the | ||
+ | signals from different detectors are adjusted and compared each other. Each pair of signals from different | ||
+ | detectors defines a hyperbolic curve. The intersection point of several hyperbolic curves determines the location. | ||
+ | This is calculated on our server in a few seconds, what even professional systems do not always achieve. | ||
+ | |||
The sferic positions are free accessible in raw format to those participants whose stations transmit | The sferic positions are free accessible in raw format to those participants whose stations transmit | ||
their data to our server. The station owner can use the raw data for all non-commercial purposes. | their data to our server. The station owner can use the raw data for all non-commercial purposes. | ||
The lightning activity is additionally displayed on several public maps like Blitzortung.org or Light- | The lightning activity is additionally displayed on several public maps like Blitzortung.org or Light- | ||
ningMaps.org. Most of the maps can be used for non-commercial purposes. | ningMaps.org. Most of the maps can be used for non-commercial purposes. | ||
+ | |||
This wiki gives an overview about the physical and technical background of our lightning | This wiki gives an overview about the physical and technical background of our lightning | ||
detection and locating technology. It is also an assembling and operation manual for participants. | detection and locating technology. It is also an assembling and operation manual for participants. |