Wideband processing and analysis of lightning in the earth-ionosphere waveguide

A new vertical electric field antenna has been installed at our West Greenwich, RI Schumann resonance field station, coupled to a high-bandwidth charge amp and a computerized sampling system. Techniques are given for the processing of lightning transients. Digital signal processing techniques for the removal of power line harmonic noise are presented and evaluated. Additionally, a wideband (3 Hz - 24 kHz) simulation model has been developed. This model gives evidence that slow tail waveforms are generated primarily due to the variation of waveguide phase velocity with frequency and the depletion of spectral energy in the waveguide cutoff region. Preliminary formulas for distance estimation have been developed from the simulations, based on slow tail separation time and spectral ratios. These methods are evaluated for consistency against real events.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2002

Author dc:creator

• Lowenfels, David F., 1979-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Earle R. Williams.

• Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/16973

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/16973