System and method for presenting lightning strike information

• US 7,869,953 B1
• Filed: 08/17/2006
• Issued: 01/11/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 08/17/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: DTN, LLC (TBG AG)
• Original Assignee: Weather Central, Inc. (The Weather Co. LLC)
• Inventors: Marsh, Victor W., Kelly, Terence F.
• Primary Examiner(s): Nghiem; Michael P
• Assistant Examiner(s): Le; Toan M
• Application Number:
  US11/506,149
• Time in Patent Office: 1,608 Days
• Field of Search: 702/4, 702 1- 3, 702/5, 702/150, 342/460, 342/450, 342/458, 340/601, 324/72, 324/457, 731/702.4, 731/701.6
• US Class Current: 702/4
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/951 ground based
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/04 Display arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: G01W 1/04 giving only separate indications of the variables measured
• CPC Class Codes: Y02A 90/10 Information and communication technologies [ICT] supporting adaptation to climate change, e.g. for weather forecasting or climate simulation

Abstract

A system and method for presenting lightning strike information in a manner so as to be easily understood and appreciated by viewers of televised weather report presentations. Lightning strike information is displayed with a marker and textual indication of the lightning strike location in a viewer friendly format. Lightning strike data from a lightning strike data source is filtered to select individual lightning strikes to be displayed and processed to obtain the viewer friendly lightning strike location information to be presented overlaid on a geographic map or satellite image background. Personalized lightning strike information indicating the distance of a lightning strike from a viewer location of interest may be generated and provided directly to individual viewers via the internet, cellular phone, and/or other wired or wireless communication channels.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of presenting lightning strike information, stored on a non-transitory computer-readable medium, comprising:

(a) receiving lightning strike data including lightning strike location data from a source thereof;

(b) deriving at least one textual lightning strike location label identifying a lightning strike location, the label describing a geographic location of the lightning strike, for a single lightning strike from the lightning strike location data; and

(c) displaying as an overlay on a computer generated graphical representation of a geographic area a computer generated marker indicating the location in the geographic area of the lightning strike along with the lightning strike location label to provide a lightning strike location presentation,

wherein receiving lightning strike data includes receiving lightning strike data from a source of lighting strike data selected from group of lightning strike data sources consisting of the National Lightning Detection Network and the United States Precision Lightning Network.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the lightning strike location label identifies the lightning strike location in a format other than as a longitude and latitude.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the lightning strike location label identifies the lightning strike location as a street address.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the lightning strike location data identifies the location of a lightning strike as a latitude and longitude coordinate and wherein deriving a textual lightning strike location label includes deriving a lightning strike location label that identifies the lightning strike location in a format other than as a latitude and longitude from the received latitude and longitude lightning strike location data.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the marker indicating the location in the geographic area of the lightning strike is in the shape of a lightning bolt.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the graphical representation of the geographic area is a satellite image of the geographic area.

7. The method of claim 1 comprising additionally automatically shifting a field of view of the displayed graphical representation of the geographic area from a previous field of view to a new field of view in response to the determination of selected lighting strike locations to be displayed that would be displayed away from the center of the previous field of view such that such selected lightning strike locations are displayed closer to the center of the new field of view.

8. The method of claim 1 comprising additionally broadcasting the lightning strike location presentation as part of a televised weather report presentation.

9. A system for generating a lightning strike location presentation, comprising:

(a) a geography database including graphical representations of geographic areas;

(b) a geographic location database of geographic location data;

(c) a graphical display device; and

(d) a computer system connected to the geography database to retrieve graphical representations of geographic areas therefrom, to the geographic location database, to the graphical display device, and to a source of lightning strike data including lightning strike location data and adapted to receive lightning strike location data from the source of lightning strike data;

to derive at least one textual lightning strike location label identifying a lightning strike location, the label describing a geographic location of the lightning strike, for a single lightning strike from the lightning strike location data and the geographic location data in the geographic location database, and to display on the graphical display device as an overlay on a graphical representation of a geographic area a marker indicating the location in the geographic area of the lightning strike along with the lightning strike location label to provide a lightning strike location presentation,

wherein the computer system is adapted to receive lightning strike data from a source of lightning strike data selected from the sources of lightning strike data consisting of the National Lightning Detection Network and the United States Precision Lightning Network.

10. The system for generating a lighting strike location presentation of claim 9 wherein the lightning strike location label identifies the lightning strike location in a format other than as a latitude and longitude.

11. The system for generating a lightning strike location presentation of claim 10 wherein the lightning strike location label identifies the lighting strike location as a street address.

12. The system for generating a lightning strike location presentation of claim 9 wherein the lightning strike location data received from the lightning strike data source identifies the location of a lightning strike as a latitude and longitude coordinate and wherein the computer system is adapted to derive a textual lightning strike location label that identifies the lightning strike location in a format other than as a latitude and longitude from the received latitude and longitude lightning strike location data.

13. The system for generating a lightning strike location presentation of claim 9 wherein the marker indicating the location in the geographic area of the lightning strike is in the shape of a lightning bolt.

14. The system for generating a lightning strike location presentation of claim 9 wherein the geography database includes satellite images of geographic areas and wherein the graphical representation of the geographic area is a satellite image of the geographic area.

15. The system for generating a lightning strike location presentation of claim 9 wherein the computer system is adapted to automatically shift a field of view of the displayed graphical representation of the geographic area from a previous field of view to a new field of view in response to the determination of selected lighting strike locations to be displayed that would be displayed away from the center of the previous field of view such that such selected lightning strike locations are displayed closer to the center of the new field of view.

16. The system for generating a lightning strike location presentation of claim 9 wherein the graphical display device is a computer monitor display device.

17. The system for generating a lightning strike location presentation of claim 9 wherein the computer system is adapted to be connected to a broadcast system and to send the lightning strike location presentation to the broadcast system for broadcasting the lightning strike location presentation as part of a televised weather report presentation.

18. A computer-implemented method of presenting lightning strike information, stored on a non-transitory computer-readable medium, comprising:

(a) receiving lightning strike data including lightning strike location data from a source thereof;

(b) determining a distance of the lightning strike location from a viewer location of interest;

(c) comparing the determined distance to a threshold distance;

(d) generating a lightning strike report, consisting of a computer generated report, indicating the determined distance if the determined distance is less than the threshold distance,

wherein receiving lightning strike data includes receiving lightning strike data from a source of lighting strike data selected from the group of lightning strike data sources consisting of the National Lightning Detection Network and the United States Precision Lightning Network.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein the lightning strike report includes displaying as an overlay on a graphical representation of a geographic area a marker indicating the location in the geographic area of the lightning strike.

20. The method of claim 19 wherein the graphical representation of the geographic area is centered at the viewer location of interest.

21. The method of claim 19 comprising additionally deriving a textual lightning strike location label identifying a lightning strike location from the lightning strike location data and wherein the lightning strike report includes the textual lightning strike location label.

22. The method of claim 21 wherein the lightning strike location label identifies the lightning strike location as a street address.

23. The method of claim 18 wherein the lightning strike report includes a textual indication of the determined distance.

24. The method of claim 18 comprising additionally delivering the lightning strike report to a user contact address.

25. The method of claim 24 wherein the user contact address is a contact address selected from the group of contact addresses consisting of an e-mail address and a cellular telephone number.

26. A system for generating a lightning strike location presentation, comprising:

(a) a viewer profile database including viewer locations of interest; and

(b) a computer system connected to the viewer profile database to retrieve viewer locations of interest therefrom and to a source of lightning strike data including lightning strike location data and adapted to receive lightning strike location data from the source of lightning strike data, to determine a distance of the lightning strike location from a viewer location of interest, to compare the determined distance to a threshold distance, and to generate a lightning strike report indicating the determined distance if the determined distance is less than the threshold distance,

wherein the computer system is adapted to receive lightning strike data from a source of lightning strike data selected from the group of lightning strike data sources consisting of the National Lightning Detection Network and the United States Precision Lightning Network.

27. The system for generating a lightning strike location presentation of claim 26 wherein the lighting strike report includes a graphical representation of a geographic area with a marker thereon indicating the location in the geographic area of the lightning strike.

28. The system for generating a lightning strike location presentation of claim 27 wherein the graphical representation of the geographic area is centered at the viewer location of interest.

29. The system for generating a lightning strike location presentation of claim 27 wherein the computer system is further adapted to derive a textual lightning strike location label identifying a lightning strike location from the lightning strike location data and wherein the lightning strike report includes the textual lightning strike location label.

30. The system for generating a lightning strike location presentation of claim 29 wherein the lightning strike location label identifies the lightning strike location as a street address.

31. The system for generating a lightning strike location presentation of claim 26 wherein the lightning strike report includes a textual indication of the determined distance.

32. The system for generating a lightning strike location presentation of claim 26 wherein the viewer profile database includes viewer contact addresses for each viewer and wherein the computer system is further adapted to retrieve the viewer contact addresses from the viewer profile database and to deliver the lightning strike report to the appropriate viewer contact address.

33. The system for generating a lightning strike location presentation of claim 32 wherein the viewer contact addresses are selected from the group of addresses consisting of e-mail addresses and cellular telephone numbers.

34. A computer-implemented method of presenting lightning strike information, stored on a non-transitory computer-readable medium, comprising:

(a) receiving lightning strike data including lightning strike location data from a source thereof;

(b) deriving at least one textual lightning strike location label identifying a lightning strike location, the label describing a geographic location of the lightning strike, for a single lightning strike from the lightning strike location data;

(c) displaying as an overlay on a computer generated graphical representation of a geographic area a computer generated marker indicating the location in the geographic area of the lightning strike along with the lightning strike location label to provide a lightning strike location presentation; and

(d) filtering the received lightning strike location data using selected filtering conditions and deriving and displaying the lighting strike location only for lightning strikes satisfying the selected lighting strike filtering conditions,

wherein the selected lightning strike filtering conditions include at least one lightning strike characteristic selected from the group of lightning strike characteristics consisting of lightning strike amplitude, voltage, current, and amplitude, voltage, current, and polarity characteristics.

35. A system for generating a lightning strike location presentation, comprising:

(a) a geography database including graphical representations of geographic areas;

(b) a geographic location database of geographic location data;

(c) a graphical display device; and

(d) a computer system connected to the geography database to retrieve graphical representations of geographic areas therefrom, to the geographic location database, to the graphical display device, and to a source of lightning strike data including lightning strike location data and adapted to receive lightning strike location data from the source of lightning strike data;

to derive at least one textual lightning strike location label identifying a lightning strike location, the label describing a geographic location of the lightning strike, for a single lightning strike from the lightning strike location data and the geographic location data in the geographic location database, and to display on the graphical display device as an overlay on a graphical representation of a geographic area a marker indicating the location in the geographic area of the lightning strike along with the lightning strike location label to provide a lightning strike location presentation,

wherein the computer system is further adapted to filter the received lightning strike location data using selected filtering conditions and to derive and display the lighting strike location label only for lightning strikes satisfying the selected lighting strike filtering conditions, and

wherein the selected lightning strike filtering conditions include lightning strike characteristics selected from the group of lightning strike characteristics consisting of amplitude, voltage, current and polarity characteristics.

36. A computer-implemented method of presenting lightning strike information, stored on a non-transitory computer-readable medium, comprising:

(a) receiving lightning strike data including lightning strike location data from a source thereof;

(b) determining a distance of the lightning strike location from a viewer location of interest;

(c) comparing the determined distance to a threshold distance;

(d) generating a computer generated lightning strike report indicating the determined distance if the determined distance is less than the threshold distance; and

(e) additionally filtering the received lightning strike location data using selected computer-implemented filtering conditions and determining a distance of the lightning strike location from a viewer location of interest only for lightning strikes satisfying the selected lighting strike filtering conditions,

wherein the selected computer-implemented lightning strike filtering conditions include at least one lightning strike characteristic selected from the group of lightning strike characteristics consisting of lightning strike amplitude, voltage, current, and polarity characteristics.

37. A system for generating a lightning strike location presentation, comprising:

(a) a viewer profile database including viewer locations of interest; and

(b) a computer system connected to the viewer profile database to retrieve viewer locations of interest therefrom and to a source of lightning strike data including lightning strike location data and adapted to receive lightning strike location data from the source of lightning strike data, to determine a distance of the lightning strike location from a viewer location of interest, to compare the determined distance to a threshold distance, and to generate a lightning strike report indicating the determined distance if the determined distance is less than the threshold distance,

wherein the computer system is further adapted to filter the received lightning strike location data using selected filtering conditions and to determine a distance of the lightning strike location from a viewer location of interest only for lightning strikes satisfying the selected lighting strike filtering conditions, and

wherein the selected lightning strike filtering conditions include at least one lightning strike characteristic selected from the group of lightning strike characteristics consisting of amplitude, voltage, current and polarity characteristics.