Appendix¶

Blitzortung

German for lightning (Blitz) locating (Ortung)

TOA

Time-of-arrival. The Blitzortung.org and almost all commercial lightning detection networks uses the TOA method for accurate locating of lightning strokes. more

DF

Direction-Finding. A method for locating lightning strokes. Not as accurate as the TOA-method. more

E-field

Electric field. The counterpart of the H-field in an electromagnetic field.

H-field

Magnetic field. The counterpart of the E-field in an electromagnetic field. Can be detected with magnetic field antennas, like loop or ferrite antennas.

GPS

Global Positioning System. A satellite navigation system that provides location and time information anywhere on the Earth. Maintained by the United States government.

GNSS

Global Navigation Satellite System. A system that uses satellites to provide autonomous geopositioning like GPS, Galileo, GLONASS or Beidou.

SBAS

Satellite-based augmentation system. Improves the navigation system's accuracy through the integration of external information into the calculation process. These external information are broadcasted to the GPS receivers by satellites.

1PPS

One pulse per second. A very accurate pulse from the GPS module which can be used for exact absolute time measurements. That means, all clocks of all world-wide stations show the same time with a deviation of a few dozen nanoseconds. This is essential for the TOA method. ADC or A/D Analog-to-digital converter. Converts a continuous voltage to a digital number.

MCU

Microcontroller unit. A small computer on an integrated circuit containing a processor core (CPU), memory and peripherals.

PCB

Printed Circuit Board

UTC

Coordinated Universal Time which is equal to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). All time stamps used for computing the lightning data use UTC as time base.

VLF

Very low frequency. Radio frequencies in the range of 3 kHz to 30 kHz or wavelengths from 10 to 100 kilometers. The most powerful emissions of lightning discharges occur in the VLF range.

sferic

An abbreviation for radio atmospheric signal. It is a broadband electromagnetic impulse which occurs as a result of lightning discharges.

Statistics¶

This documentation has 29 pages with 25390 words.