Method and apparatus for detecting and processing lightning
First Claim
1. A system for detecting lightning activity comprising:
- a receiver for detecting energy emitted by lightning strikes, andprocessor means for processing signals from the receiver;
for estimating locations of detected lightning strikes relative to the system,for determining a cumulative effect, on a plurality of locations arranged in a regular array, of plural lightning strikes spaced in distance from each other and from the locations and spaced in time from each other, andfor generating display signals to illustrate said cumulative effect.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
A lightning detector designed for aircraft carried applications provides for improved lightning discrimination and display. The instrument employs a relatively wide band receiver so as to retain the received waveform or digital replicas thereof. This allows more precise discrimination between desired lightning signals and noise. Signals are processed to provide for effective display of the available information. The display modes that are enabled by the signals include flash and cell mode as well as a combined flash and cell mode. The cell mode provides for generating and displaying a cumulative weight of lightning activity, giving each strike a regional effect as opposed to illustrating it as a point. Color is used to improve the user'"'"'s grasp of the displayed information; the color illustrating increased intensity from the blue-green to the yellow-red. Flash mode shows locations of the different flashes within the range scale; this mode too may use color for a similar effect. Finally there is a combined flash and cell mode display.
65 Citations
89 Claims
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1. A system for detecting lightning activity comprising:
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a receiver for detecting energy emitted by lightning strikes, and processor means for processing signals from the receiver; for estimating locations of detected lightning strikes relative to the system, for determining a cumulative effect, on a plurality of locations arranged in a regular array, of plural lightning strikes spaced in distance from each other and from the locations and spaced in time from each other, and for generating display signals to illustrate said cumulative effect. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26)
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27. A method for detecting lightning activity comprising:
receiving electromagnetic energy emitted by lightning strikes in a receiver, processing signals from the receiver for estimating locations of lightning strikes relative to the receiver and for determining a cumulative effect, on a plurality of locations arranged in a regular array of plural lightning strikes spaced in distance from each other and from the locations and spaced in time from each other, and generating display signals to illustrate said cumulative effect with respect to said regular array. - View Dependent Claims (28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51)
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52. A system for detecting lightning strikes based on features of waveforms of received energy, said system comprising:
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a wide band receiver for detecting energy emitted by lightning strikes, said receiver having at least one loop channel and at least one sense channel, each of said channels generating a related signal and coupled to a signal sampler, said signal sampler generating sequences of samples for each of said signals, a signal processor responsive to said sequences of samples of said signals for generating, for each of said signals a plurality of waveform parameters, said signal processor deriving a plurality of parameters measured in signal magnitude as well as at least one parameter measured in a time duration, and said processor for processing said waveform parameters to reject signals having characteristics inconsistent with a lightning strike. - View Dependent Claims (53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69)
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70. A method for detecting lightning strikes based on features of waveforms of received energy, said method comprising:
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receiving energy emitted by lightning strikes via at least one loop channel and at least one sense channel, each of said channels generating a related signal, sampling signals from said at least one loop channel and at least one sense channel to generate sequences of samples for each of said signals, generating for each of said signals, in response to said sequences of samples, a plurality of waveform parameters, said plurality of parameters measured in signal magnitude as well as at least one parameter measured in a time duration, and rejecting signals having characteristics inconsistent with a lightning strike. - View Dependent Claims (71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87)
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88. A system for detecting lightning activity comprising:
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a receiver for detecting energy emitted by lightning strikes, and a processor for processing signals from the receiver, said processor including means for estimating locations of detected lightning strikes relative to the system, means for determining a cumulative effect, on a plurality of locations arranged in a regular array, of plural lightning strikes spaced in distance from each other and from the locations and spaced in time from each other, and means for generating display signals to illustrate said cumulative effect. - View Dependent Claims (89)
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Specification