No lightning

[Gandalf]

Hi, I currently live in Mauritius and we are in the middle of a thunderstorm at the moment but the lightning is not appearing on the map. Our nearest detector would seem to be in Reunion, about 200-300km away. Any ideas why? Thank you.

[cutty]

Hi, I currently live in Mauritius and we are in the middle of a thunderstorm at the moment but the lightning is not appearing on the map. Our nearest detector would seem to be in Reunion, about 200-300km away. Any ideas why? Thank you.

Sure... One or two stations won't 'register a stroke... to detect a stroke, a Time of Arrival / Time of Group Arrival network requires a minimum of 4 stations to detect and supply data relating to a sferic. Unfortunately,  we don't have enough volunteers off Africa or on Indian Ocean Islands for example, 'seeing' Mauritius. If the strokes are powerful enough, and the Ionosphere 'active', your strokes could be reflected to many of the Australian, Asian, and other areas, in which they could be 'detected', but the location accuracy wouldn't be that good. Simply said, enough stations aren't receiving those sferics to provide data of quality that would allow 'registering'. 
The more stations receiving a sferic, beyond the minimum of 4, the better.  For areas such as North America, the 'normal' minimum number of stations to locate is usually 8-12, because there are more stations, more stations better accuracy, etc.

Another possibility, many of the impulses may be intra-cloud or cloud to cloud, and these are more difficult to detect.

Cheers!
Mike

[Gandalf]

Hi, I currently live in Mauritius and we are in the middle of a thunderstorm at the moment but the lightning is not appearing on the map. Our nearest detector would seem to be in Reunion, about 200-300km away. Any ideas why? Thank you.

Sure... One or two stations won't 'register a stroke... to detect a stroke, a Time of Arrival / Time of Group Arrival network requires a minimum of 4 stations to detect and supply data relating to a sferic. Unfortunately,  we don't have enough volunteers off Africa or on Indian Ocean Islands for example, 'seeing' Mauritius. If the strokes are powerful enough, and the Ionosphere 'active', your strokes could be reflected to many of the Australian, Asian, and other areas, in which they could be 'detected', but the location accuracy wouldn't be that good. Simply said, enough stations aren't receiving those sferics to provide data of quality that would allow 'registering'. 
The more stations receiving a sferic, beyond the minimum of 4, the better.  For areas such as North America, the 'normal' minimum number of stations to locate is usually 8-12, because there are more stations, more stations better accuracy, etc.

Another possibility, many of the impulses may be intra-cloud or cloud to cloud, and these are more difficult to detect.

Cheers!
Mike

Brilliant, thanks Mike. I always knew we were a bit remote over here.

[DelandeC]

Build your own

[Gandalf]

Build your own

Thinking about it

[cutty]

Build your own

Thinking about it

I've been trying for a couple of years to get 'em to develop "Blitzortung Buoys"  but I think they're holding out for "detecting drones"...

[Benedict.Smith]

Build your own

Thinking about it

I've been trying for a couple of years to get 'em to develop "Blitzortung Buoys"  but I think they're holding out for "detecting drones"...

Good idea, FlightRadar24 recently trialed a receiver on a WaveGlider to give increased ocean coverage, it would not be much harder to do the same for Blitzortung, however the cost would be quite high!

[cutty]

Build your own

Thinking about it

I've been trying for a couple of years to get 'em to develop "Blitzortung Buoys"  but I think they're holding out for "detecting drones"...

Good idea, FlightRadar24 recently trialed a receiver on a WaveGlider to give increased ocean coverage, it would not be much harder to do the same for Blitzortung, however the cost would be quite high!

Benedict, My comment was meant to be a tease ... especially as relating to drones...   ... the stations need to be 'fixed position' under the present paradigms, especially with the current lack of station density in many areas... Delande had the best suggestion...