On estimation of the effective height of towers on mountaintops in lightning incidence studies

Towers on mountaintops have more incidence of lightning than towers on the flat ground. Therefore towers on mountaintops are ascribed an effective height that is often considerably larger than the physical height of the tower. In this paper, we review and evaluate the definitions and methods that could be used to estimate the effective height of a given tower on mountaintop and propose a new definition based on an engineering model of lightning attachment. The results can be useful in designing lightning protection of communication/transmission lines and masts on mountaintops.