A new localised lightning locating system utilising telecommunication subscriber lines

Lightning mapping or locating systems are based on several working principles such as the time of arrival (ToA) and the Directional Finder (DF). The country wide lightning locating system (LLS) owned by TNB Malaysia is able to determine the coordinate of the cloud-to-ground lightning strike within 500m accuracy. A new method is proposed to determine the coordinate of any cloud-to-ground lightning strike within a certain local region with better accuracy, instead of using an expensive LLS system made up of high performance sensors located throughout the country together with a central processing unit. This new LLS is based on the measurement of induced voltages due to lightning strikes in the vicinity of an existing overhead telephone lines. The localised lightning locating system (LLLS) is made up of three components: a mock telephone subscriber lines (MTSLs), a voltage surge measuring and transmission system (optical fibre), and a central processing station complete with appropriate receivers. The mock telecommunication subscriber line was constructed in such a way to simply form the Cartesian system suitable for lightning strike location mapping. The mapping of the lightning strike locations is successfully implemented in the LabView environment. The mapping system is now fully constructed on-site and is almost ready to capture lightning activities once a few final adjustments in the optical transceiver system are carried out.