(2016-07-24, 20:53)guidoco Wrote: The strikes seem to be pretty accurate except for 2 local stations that I have never seen reister a strike. Station # 1163 in Redmond and station # 1238 in Port Townsend are both close enough to pick up strong lightning in Seattle, Everett, and Marysville. We have had several strong lightning storms in the area with jothing showing locally.
Thanks for any info on why strikes on the West of the mountains don't show op.
Guidoco
Could be several reasons:
1) first, the stations are designed to go 'interference' and cease data transmission with very active nearby cells.... stations typically are not set up for 'nearby storms' and optimally work best at longer distances. Other network stations detect the strikes in those areas.
2) many of the sferics may be intra-cloud, or inter cloud-strokes, (they're of lower power) and currently the network emphasizes Cloud-to-Ground detection.
3) currently, as I checked those two stations, they both running reduced gains, and may be trying to combat some nearby noise, however they are both in operation and sending data to the network.
...but generally I would suspect that many of the strikes you mention are not C-G type, or of such low strength that too few western stations are receiving a quality impulse necessary for locating... that doesn't mean they're not detected, just not enough data to locate and spot on the map. Station density is lower in you area, need more stations.... Generally, in North America, we look for good data from a minimum of 8 detecting stations.
and as you mentioned, the mountains don't help getting the signals through to the central and eastern stations.
Oh... one other thing ... there's been Solar activity for a few days, sometimes this affects GPS signals at higher latitudes, and if there were issues with the GPS time-stamps from a station, that would cause 'bad data'... rare, but it does occur...
Hope this helps...
Mike
