Collaboration around the world with GNNS ground based stations

[Kellogs]

Dear Friends,

I am new here and first and I would like to congratulate you for the BlitzOrtung project. There was lightning in my area in France and I just discovered the project using Android BlitzOrtung project. It is great to see such a well-organized community project.

So my question is as follows: there are Billions of euros lost in lightning every year. Still, a large number of areas are not covered by BlitzOrtung around the world.

There are similarities with other projects. For example ground based GPS (GNNS) and differential GPS (RTK). Differential GPS are precise GPS stations providing positioning data. Some GNSS stations are located remotely in noise-free areas all around the world. And all of them have Internet access. Most of them are run by scientists, for example in observatories or meteorological labs.

Maybe ground GNSS stations would be interested to host a BlitzOrtung receiver. GNSS stations are usually organized in communities. So we know the precise positioning of each station.

Here is a partial map. In fact, there are way more of them:



Here is a list of station networks that could become partners:

EUREF Permanent GNSS Network
Based in Belgium. 
http://epncb.oma.be/_networkdata/stationlist.php
All network is extreme quality.


In 2015, Africa had 54 ground-based GNNS stations:
http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/sites/default/f...A_2015.pdf

Brasil: IBGE Brasil
www.ibge.gov.br/home/geociencias/geodesia/estadual.shtm
Brasil map for GNNS with hundreds of receivers (I guess so, but I don't speak Brasilian):
ftp://geoftp.ibge.gov.br/informacoes_sob...aduais.pdf

French Guyana
Think about IGN or Arianespace.

Glonass stations (not official list)
http://gpsworld.com/tag/ground-station/
or from ESA:
http://www.navipedia.net/index.php/GLONA...nd_Segment


Do you think it would be valuable to list all possible GNNS stations worldwide and try to contact them? Some of them should have direct interest to install a BlitzOrtung detector, just for safety of equipment and protection against lightning.

Maybe this was discussed before, but what would be the perfect grid for precision reception?
Can you describe it? How many sites would you need in South America and Africa?

Kind regards,
Kellogs (Jean-Michel P., France)

[Kellogs]

I am also thinking about the RIPE community:
https://atlas.ripe.net/results/maps/network-coverage/

The RIPE community provide a USB dongle in order to test IPv6 connectivity worldwide with more than 30.000 network probes.

Here is a list of anchors, mostly Internet access companies :
https://atlas.ripe.net/anchors/list

Here is a list of probes:
https://atlas.ripe.net/probes/

Probe list is private but anchor list is not, as we can use IPv6 reverse mapping to find the real address.

I posted this message on their forum:

Dear Friends from RIPE community,

This is my first post on the forum. I would like to point out to the
community the existence of a free community providing a network device
for Lightning and Thunderstorms in Real Time:

http://blitzortung.org

The device works the same as a RIPE probe, except that it collects
information about lightning via radio and delivers the information to a
central network of computers for data processing.

If you are network specialist hosting very expensive network devices,
it might be interesting for you to participate in the effort to build a
  free community and host a Blitzordnung device in your premisses. 

All information can be found on http://blitzortung.org
and BlitzOrdnung forum : http://en.blitzortung.org/forum.php

BlitzOrdnung coverage is good in Europe and North America, but
BlitzOrdnung needs more devices in Africa/South America/China and
Russia. All help is welcome and may save you a lot of money in
lightning protection.

Kind regards,
Kellogs

[Kellogs]

Looking for ideas, I think golf clubs could be a very interesting target for stations.

For example, in South Africa, here is a list of golf clubs:
http://www.top100golfcourses.com/golf-co...uth-africa

When practicing golf, it is very annoying to see a storm and lightning coming.
Also, they are relatively low noise sites with Internet access.

[pasense]

Hello Kellogs,
I do not think that Golf courses would be a good idea, since a network like this cannot guarantee 100% detection efficiency and uptime; so if these data would be used for safety relevant purposes, serious problems would arise. This is also the reason that such a usage is strictly excluded by the terms of use. The only use which is allowed is recreational and also for research, if the conditions can be met. This seems to be the case in Japan, where a number of stations appear to be run by an university.

[Kellogs]

Dear pasense,

I understand that this is a disclaimer ... because lightning is dangerous.

However, today, I have been working in my garden and I feel safer looking at my mobile that only Eastern France has lightnings.

Now that I know Blitzortung, this is a good companion!

[Kellogs]

For interested people from Blitzortung project, this French association is building electrical networks in Africa. You might be interested in contacting them: http://www.energiespourlafrique.org

It is a very popular project in France and they may be interested in buying a few device from Blitzortung directly.

Cutty, this is for you if you are interested in contacting them.