COMPARISON OF SINGLE-STATION LIGHTNING LOCATION WITH THREE-STATION MEASUREMENTS AND RADAR DATA

A single-station or monostatic lightning detection and ranging system (M-LDARS),that is based on Wait's wave propagation theory and arrival-time differences between sky- and ground-wave atmospherics,has been developed by the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC).Lightning location by the system was compared with a three-station lightning location (TLL) system during July and August 1991 in Beijing,under the support of Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences (CAMS).The experimental results show that M-LDARS system can be used to observe direction,distance,intensity and polarity of cloud-to-ground strokes with good confidence for ranges less than about 250 km.90 percent of M-LDARS location points were within radar echoes,i.e.about 90% of the points were inside of the 0 dB isoline or outside,but within 10 km of the 0 dB isopleth.Average direction deviation and relative average deviation of distance between the single- and three-station measurements are respectively 12.8° and 14.1%.