Lightning Location and Protection, Inc.

Lightning Protection Technology

Leon G Byerley, Iii

Alburt E Pifer

Kenneth L Cummins

William Hiscox

E Philip Krider

Kenneth Hufnagel

An efficient optical radiation detector for lightning or other light signals such as pulses, bursts, flashes, and steady fluctuations. A silicon photodiode (or similar light-sensitive silicon device) is arranged to receive light signals (infrared, visible, ultraviolet, broadband, etc.) of interest. The photodiode is connected across the primary winding of a properly-designed transformer. The transformer-coupled photodiode circuit gives AC coupling, photodiode bias, voltage gain, and several other desirable detector characteristics. Light fluctuations on the photodiode produce variations of photocurrent in the transformer primary circuit which, in turn, induce current in the secondary winding and circuit of the transformer. The current induced in the secondary circuit of the transformer is used to do useful work (such as energize an audible alarm, increment a counter, latch a relay, etc.) or it is further amplified and processed, or combined with other signals to make an event detector such as a lightning sensor. The transformer-coupled photodiode circuit provides a general purpose light-change detector that is particularly useful as the optical sensor element of a lightning detector including any of a variety of so-called 'lightning coincidence detectors'. The chance of a 'false' lightning detection is greatly reduced by the combination of an electric or magnetic field-change detection device with the transformer-coupled photodiode circuit.

Transformer-coupled photodiode circuit for lightning and other light

An omnidirectional lightning ranging, identification and protection system having circuits that produce no false alarms or failures to alarm, responsive to cloud to ground and cloud discharges, capable of differentiating between cloud to ground and cloud discharges insensitive to background noise, autonomous with respect to power and communications conductors for operating reliably in the presence of nearby lightning discharges, requiring no field calibration, that provides local and remote lightning rate and range data, and that provides mechanisms for automatically signalling and disconnecting electrical equipment for the purpose of lightning protection. The system has circuits that are responsive to the electric field changes produced by lightning discharges in the frequency range between 2 khz and about 200 khz and to time coincident optical radiation in the 6000 to 9000 angstroms wavelength range. The sensor has circuits for receiving and manipulating the optical radiation component, circuits for receiving and manipulating the radiation field component and electrostatic field component, and other control circuits for generating the active and inactive states and for controlling a photovoltaic solar power source, and circuits for generating digital signals that produce encoded data representing the occurrence, type and range to signal sources of natural lightning origin and circuits for communicating the composite data signal to a remote controller for further processing and manipulation.

Autonomous electro-optical lightning identification and ranging

The thunderstorm sensor of the present invention includes a pair of orthogonally positioned magnetic loop antennas to provide signals representative of the north-south and east-west components of the magnetic field produced by a lightning discharge. The system also includes an omni-directional electric field antenna to provide a signal representative of the electric field produced by a lightning discharge. The magnetic field and electric field signals from the antennas are coupled to an analog signal processor and digitizer which provides digital representations of the peak north-south and peak east-west components of the radiated magnetic field. The analog signal processor and digitizer also provides digital representations of the peak radiated electric field and the electric field sampled at a time subsequent to the time of occurrence of the peak radiated field wherein the second sampled electric field value represents the electrostatic field change due to the lightning discharge. The amplitude of the magnetic field is determined from the digital representations of the north-south and east-west components of the magnetic field. The relative electric field change is determined from the ratio of the second sampled electric field to the peak radiated electric field. The amplitude of the magnetic field and the relative electric field change are compared to respective first and second reference values to determine whether the detected lightning is associated with a thunderstorm within one or more predetermined ranges of the sensor.

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Tucson, AZ, United States of America

Leon G Byerley, Iii