Storms, Lightning, & Living | SouthernPaddler.com

Storms, Lightning, & Living

akash52

New Member
Oct 7, 2011
4
0
Here we present live storm data and sferics generated by data recorded by our weather station at Newport, Isle of Wight. This is recorded in real time using a Boltek Storm Tracker PCI lightning detector, and we are currently using Astrogenic Systems NexStorm 1.7.0.2612 Public, Astrogenic Systems StormVue 1.54XE, and Astrogenic Systems TSentry 1.0 software applications. We are able to generate the following detailed plotting of storms around Western Europe, with the map centered on the Isle of Wight. Our data is shared with the StrikeStar EU Networked Lightning Locator System, and the Blitzortung Lightning Tracker System.

The Boltek PCI StormTracker works by detecting the radio signals produced by lightning. These are the same signals you can hear on an AM radio during a thunderstorm. The Boltek PCI StormTracker's direction-finding antenna provides direction information while storm distance is calculated from received signal strength. Special processing in software reduces the effects of strike-to-strike energy variations providing more accurate distance information.

Our station is one of the leading Storm Detection Systems in the UK, and the most used Thunderstorm Information Portal in the South of England, with our data comparing very well with all the official Storm Detection / StrikeStar EU Network / Blitzortung / UK StrikeStar Network / Sferics / Lightning Detectors / Boltek StormTrackers in the UK and Europe. Our data is uploaded every minute, with a screenshot as well as the StormVue Java applet.

When tracking UK Thunderstorms, it seems that if there is a storm in close proximity to our detector, generating very strong signals, and there is a weaker storm further away, but on a similar bearing as the close one, the further storm may not be correctly identified. This seems to be a slight limitation to the system we use. Some detectors out there do seem to struggle to even get the direction correct, let alone the distance, but we do try to be as accurate as we possibly can be....
 

Kayak Jack

Well-Known Member
Aug 26, 2003
13,976
171
86
Okemos / East Lansing Michigan
RE: larger, nearby storm masking a weaker, distant storm - if a single piece of equipment cannot discern between the two signal sources, it sounds like a second observation station a few miles distant would provide offset to show difference in direction and source?