An improved distance finding technique for single-site lightning location system using reflection characteristics of the anisotropic ionosphere

The distance finding technique for a single-site lightning location system is evaluated by using theoretical sferics, which are calculated under the effect of the magnetized ionosphere. The calculated ionospheric reflection coefficients are stable at smaller incident angles, while they exhibit a poor reflection at larger incident angles around 70 degrees. The distance finding accuracy is improved when the 1st reflected pulse of the sferic having the largest incident angle is excluded in the estimation. The errors of the improved distance finding technique become less than 5%, while those of the previous technique using the 1st reflected pulse were 20%.