2017-06-28, 14:59
The antenna orientation used for B/O is optimized for cloud to ground strikes: the (almost) vertical lightning channel close to ground radiates such that the variation of the electrical field is up/down, so the vertical E-field antenna picks it up; the magnetic field is radiated such that it varies horizontally, therefore e.g. the ferrite antennas are placed also horizontally. The cloud to cloud strikes have of course a different orientation and they also radiate less and the wave forms are much more varied than for CG strikes. This is in a nutshell the reason why B/O is quite insensitive to cloud-cloud strikes. The commercial lightning location systems are currently trying to improve their detection ability for cloud strikes, since this is a competitive advantage when selling their services.
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