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Real-time lightning map, worldwide

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Re: Real-time lightning map, worldwide

#51

Post by mortenlarsen »

IvyMike wrote: post #20
cipherzero wrote: post #3

How are they getting the data?

(This is getting a bit pedantic but this is HN so we like to be accurate. And I learned the word on HN so might as well pass it on.) Several of the other answers have mentioned "triangulation" but that's not quite right--that would imply that each listening station measures an angle towards the lightning source. But they don't--instead, they collect non-directional data consisting of arrival time stamps. I believe th…

I wonder if this could be used for a lightning based positioning system independent of GPS, if the events (time + position) were transmitted on longwave like the DCF77 time signal.

Re: Real-time lightning map, worldwide

#52

Post by ChuckMcM »

thekevan wrote: post #2

Europe: 1489 strikes Oceania: 28 strikes Asia: 0 strikes South America: 913 strikes North America: 15,826 strikes!!

   > North America: 15,826 strikes!!
The funny part is that they happen mostly in the midwest and that area is sometimes called the 'bible belt' (for its strong evangelical christian population) and lightning strikes are a metaphorical means of punishment by God (as in "May lightning strike me down if I'm lying ...")

That irony aside, I am wondering about that South America number, it seems like at equidistant latitudes there are similar lightning environments on both sides of the equator and yet a nearly 16x reduction in number of strikes? What is up with that?

Re: Real-time lightning map, worldwide

#54

Post by personZ »

hcarvalhoalves wrote: post #7
thekevan wrote: post #2

Europe: 1489 strikes Oceania: 28 strikes Asia: 0 strikes South America: 913 strikes North America: 15,826 strikes!!

It's not the reality, it's just reflecting the coverage.

http://www.lightningmaps.org/extra/coverage?lang=en

As mentioned by mnw, coverage is actually pretty sparse in North America (at least relative to Europe, presumably because it's a German project?). The continent simply has environments that are ideal for severe thunderstorms. I imagine the other continents are grossly underrepresented.

Re: Real-time lightning map, worldwide

#56

Post by chris_va »

exabrial wrote: post #55

So do the lines between stations and a strike mean that detector heard the strike? That's incredible if so... there's a station in California picking up strikes over Missouri.

From their FAQ, they pick up RF pulses, tag it with a GPS timestamp, and correlate on a central server.

"A lightning is a pulse not comparable to a broadcast signal on a single frequency. Such a pulse can be described best as a interference of several frequencies. Therefore a ferrite rod for lightning detection has to be a wide-band antenna."

Re: Real-time lightning map, worldwide

#57

Post by decode »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #52
thekevan wrote: post #2

Europe: 1489 strikes Oceania: 28 strikes Asia: 0 strikes South America: 913 strikes North America: 15,826 strikes!!

> North America: 15,826 strikes!! The funny part is that they happen mostly in the midwest and that area is sometimes called the 'bible belt' (for its strong evangelical christian population) and lightning strikes are a metaphorical means of punishment by God (as in "May lightning strike me down if I'm lying ...") That irony aside, I am wondering about that South America number, it seems like at equidistant latitudes…

> The funny part is that they happen mostly in the midwest and that area is sometimes called the 'bible belt'

Funny idea, but for the record, there is almost no overlap between the Midwest and the Bible Belt (which is essentially the South):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midwestern_United_States

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bible_Belt

Re: Real-time lightning map, worldwide

#58

Post by ChuckMcM »

decode wrote: post #57
ChuckMcM wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> North America: 15,826 strikes!! The funny part is that they happen mostly in the midwest and that area is sometimes called the 'bible belt' (for its strong evangelical christian population) and lightning strikes are a metaphorical means of punishment by God (as in "May lightning strike me down if I'm lying ...") That irony aside, I am wondering about that South America number, it seems like at equidistant latitudes…

> The funny part is that they happen mostly in the midwest and that area is sometimes called the 'bible belt' Funny idea, but for the record, there is almost no overlap between the Midwest and the Bible Belt (which is essentially the South): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midwestern_United_States http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bible_Belt

Your right of course. On the map the of lightning strikes they are (or at least were when I looked at it) happening in the Bible Belt according to the Wikipedia link. Along the top of Texas and up through Missouri. My error was in conflating the name of the regions.

I apologize to any folks who live in the region known as the midwest who were offended.

Re: Real-time lightning map, worldwide

#59

Post by unsignedint »

msane wrote: post #48
joezydeco wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You just need to find a Maxwell HSN-1000 Nuclear Event Detector. Very handy part. http://www.maxwell.com/products/microelectronics/docs/hsn100...

Hah! Cute part. I'm curious - do you just happen to know of this part or have you been involved with projects that use if?

Softbank in Japan did release a phone with a Geiger counter, so it's probably not that far off...

[1] http://www.softbank.jp/mobile/product/smartphone/107sh/featu...

Re: Real-time lightning map, worldwide

#60

Post by joezydeco »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #58
decode wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The funny part is that they happen mostly in the midwest and that area is sometimes called the 'bible belt' Funny idea, but for the record, there is almost no overlap between the Midwest and the Bible Belt (which is essentially the South): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midwestern_United_States http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bible_Belt

Your right of course. On the map the of lightning strikes they are (or at least were when I looked at it) happening in the Bible Belt according to the Wikipedia link. Along the top of Texas and up through Missouri. My error was in conflating the name of the regions. I apologize to any folks who live in the region known as the midwest who were offended.

Are you confusing "Bible Belt" with "Tornado Alley"?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tornado_alley

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