There are probably several reasons Maracaibo /Catatumbo strokes don't present often on Blitzortung... '
The main reason would be low station density in Northeast SA, and the Caribbean.
Also... you'd want to look for the peak lightning events between certain specific times,. (see attached)
At the station distance greater than about 80 KM we have to depend on Ionospheric Bounce (Sky Wave) signals, so stations have to be at some 'reflections / skip" window to detect. These signals are distorted and delayed from the original sferic. Because the basin sits in topography with some peaks >5000M, the impulses have a hard time making it out of the geography to traverse the water, which would produce a greater distant 'ground wave' component, but station density is still too low...
....there is also some indication that, though dramatic, the "power" of an individual imipulse is generally moderate, ... also many of the strokes are C-C or Intra-Cloud, and Blitzortung currently follows only C-G strokes. One researcher indicates that the CC/IC ratio to CG was about 13:1
The WWLLN was detecting an average of 2%-20% of the strokes out of the region., with stroke power of approx 20kA. BT would approach that with a sufficient number of stations
So, currently, not enough stations are detecting a viable impulse signal with a valid time stamp to register most of thise sferics.
The main reason would be low station density in Northeast SA, and the Caribbean.
Also... you'd want to look for the peak lightning events between certain specific times,. (see attached)
At the station distance greater than about 80 KM we have to depend on Ionospheric Bounce (Sky Wave) signals, so stations have to be at some 'reflections / skip" window to detect. These signals are distorted and delayed from the original sferic. Because the basin sits in topography with some peaks >5000M, the impulses have a hard time making it out of the geography to traverse the water, which would produce a greater distant 'ground wave' component, but station density is still too low...
....there is also some indication that, though dramatic, the "power" of an individual imipulse is generally moderate, ... also many of the strokes are C-C or Intra-Cloud, and Blitzortung currently follows only C-G strokes. One researcher indicates that the CC/IC ratio to CG was about 13:1
The WWLLN was detecting an average of 2%-20% of the strokes out of the region., with stroke power of approx 20kA. BT would approach that with a sufficient number of stations
So, currently, not enough stations are detecting a viable impulse signal with a valid time stamp to register most of thise sferics.
