A Lightning Electromagn-etic environment evaluation software package based on FDTD - the design and implementation

The major cause of lightning disaster is the Lightning Electromagnetic Pulse (LEMP). Disaster risk assessment services have been widely used in lightning protection centers of many cities in China for years. At present, electromagnetic environment assessment services are being used more and more at many lightning protection centers in China, with various methods. Most of them adopt an expensive commercial software package which needs 3D modeling of complex structure and high computational costs. This article describes a useful assessment tool based on finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method focusing on an electromagnetic environment of buildings featured with a simple setup procedure. This software package has been applied in daily evaluation services, filling gaps of the current commercial software, leading to a great potential in this area.