A lightning prediction system is a type of lightning detection equipment that determines when atmospheric conditions likely to produce lightning strikes and sounds an alarm, warning those nearby that lightning is imminent and giving them the chance to find safety before the storm arrives in the area. Lightning protection systems are often installed in outdoor areas which are often congested with people, lack sufficient shelter, and are difficult to evacuate quickly (such as water parks, college campuses, and large swimming pool or athletic field complexes). These locations are particularly dangerous during lightning storms. Prediction systems are prone to false alarms as they respond to conditions that are not always attributed to a developing thunderstorm.[citation needed]Electric field data is typically used in conjunction with detection information to limit false positives.[citation needed]
Description
A Perry Weather lightning warning system.
The detection equipment is designed to constantly survey atmospheric electrical activity and potential for lightning occurrence via radar and other methods.[citation needed] Storms are scanned by radar to determine the degree of electrification and potential for lightning occurrence.[citation needed]
The method used by such systems includes the stationing of at least three receivers at known locations in order to triangulate their data. When any of the receivers detects a strong electrical disturbance, the location is shared with other receivers in the area for corroboration, and then (presuming the data has passed the filters), encoded and transmitted to a central facility and thereafter processed for deriving the position of the lightning strike.[citation needed] By detecting thunderstorm electrical fields, a track can be predicted to allow warnings as early as 30 minutes before lightning strikes the protected area.[citation needed] The system is synchronized with the U.S. Coast GuardLORAN navigation network, and includes various features which permit a more accurate analysis of lightning position.[citation needed]
While some systems require manual remote activation of the siren from the central monitoring facility, others work automatically. These systems can also sound an "All Clear" tone when electrical activity in the monitored area has receded to safe levels. This feature eliminates both the need for skilled monitoring of the system as well as the chance for human error in interpreting the data.[citation needed]
Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance (ranging), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. A radar system consists of a transmitter producing electromagnetic waves in the radio or microwaves domain, a transmitting antenna, a receiving antenna and a receiver and processor to determine properties of the objects. Radio waves from the transmitter reflect off the objects and return to the receiver, giving information about the objects' locations and speeds.
A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. It is often referred to as a twister, whirlwind or cyclone, although the word cyclone is used in meteorology to name a weather system with a low-pressure area in the center around which, from an observer looking down toward the surface of the Earth, winds blow counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern. Tornadoes come in many shapes and sizes, and they are often visible in the form of a condensation funnel originating from the base of a cumulonimbus cloud, with a cloud of rotating debris and dust beneath it. Most tornadoes have wind speeds less than 180 km/h (110 mph), are about 80 m across, and travel several kilometers before dissipating. The most extreme tornadoes can attain wind speeds of more than 480 km/h (300 mph), are more than 3 km in diameter, and stay on the ground for more than 100 km.
Lightning is a naturally occurring electrostatic discharge during which two electrically charged regions, both in the atmosphere or with one on the ground, temporarily neutralize themselves, causing the instantaneous release of an average of one gigajoule of energy. This discharge may produce a wide range of electromagnetic radiation, from heat created by the rapid movement of electrons, to brilliant flashes of visible light in the form of black-body radiation. Lightning causes thunder, a sound from the shock wave which develops as gases in the vicinity of the discharge experience a sudden increase in pressure. Lightning occurs commonly during thunderstorms as well as other types of energetic weather systems, but volcanic lightning can also occur during volcanic eruptions.
A thunderstorm, also known as an electrical storm or a lightning storm, is a storm characterized by the presence of lightning and its acoustic effect on the Earth's atmosphere, known as thunder. Relatively weak thunderstorms are sometimes called thundershowers. Thunderstorms occur in a type of cloud known as a cumulonimbus. They are usually accompanied by strong winds and often produce heavy rain and sometimes snow, sleet, or hail, but some thunderstorms produce little precipitation or no precipitation at all. Thunderstorms may line up in a series or become a rainband, known as a squall line. Strong or severe thunderstorms include some of the most dangerous weather phenomena, including large hail, strong winds, and tornadoes. Some of the most persistent severe thunderstorms, known as supercells, rotate as do cyclones. While most thunderstorms move with the mean wind flow through the layer of the troposphere that they occupy, vertical wind shear sometimes causes a deviation in their course at a right angle to the wind shear direction.
The Schumann resonances (SR) are a set of spectrum peaks in the extremely low frequency (ELF) portion of the Earth's electromagnetic field spectrum. Schumann resonances are global electromagnetic resonances, generated and excited by lightning discharges in the cavity formed by the Earth's surface and the ionosphere.
A tornado warning is a severe weather warning product issued by regional offices of weather forecasting agencies throughout the world to alert the public when a tornado has been reported or indicated by weather radar within the parent severe thunderstorm. It can be issued after a tornado, funnel cloud and rotation in the clouds has been witnessed by the public, storm chasers, emergency management or law enforcement, and indicates that residents in the affected areas should take immediate safety precautions.
The National Weather Service (NWS) is an agency of the United States federal government that is tasked with providing weather forecasts, warnings of hazardous weather, and other weather-related products to organizations and the public for the purposes of protection, safety, and general information. It is a part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) branch of the Department of Commerce, and is headquartered in Silver Spring, Maryland, within the Washington metropolitan area. The agency was known as the United States Weather Bureau from 1890 until it adopted its current name in 1970.
NEXRAD or Nexrad is a network of 160 high-resolution S-band Doppler weather radars operated by the National Weather Service (NWS), an agency of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) within the United States Department of Commerce, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) within the Department of Transportation, and the U.S. Air Force within the Department of Defense. Its technical name is WSR-88D.
Receiver autonomous integrity monitoring (RAIM) is a technology developed to assess the integrity of global positioning system (GPS) signals in a GPS receiver system. It is of special importance in safety-critical GPS applications, such as in aviation or marine navigation.
A security alarm is a system designed to detect intrusion, such as unauthorized entry, into a building or other areas such as a home or school. Security alarms used in residential, commercial, industrial, and military properties protect against burglary (theft) or property damage, as well as personal protection against intruders. Security alerts in neighborhoods show a connection with diminished robbery. Car alarms likewise help protect vehicles and their contents. Prisons also use security systems for the control of inmates.
This is a list of meteorology topics. The terms relate to meteorology, the interdisciplinary scientific study of the atmosphere that focuses on weather processes and forecasting.
The National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL) is a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) weather research laboratory under the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research. It is one of seven NOAA Research Laboratories (RLs).
A lightning strike or lightning bolt is an electric discharge between the atmosphere and the ground. Most originate in a cumulonimbus cloud and terminate on the ground, called cloud-to-ground (CG) lightning. A less common type of strike, ground-to-cloud (GC) lightning, is upward-propagating lightning initiated from a tall grounded object and reaching into the clouds. About 69% of all lightning events worldwide are strikes between the atmosphere and earth-bound objects. Most are intracloud (IC) lightning and cloud-to-cloud (CC), where discharges only occur high in the atmosphere. Lightning strikes the average commercial aircraft at least once a year, but modern engineering and design means this is rarely a problem. The movement of aircraft through clouds can even cause lightning strikes.
A motion detector is an electrical device that utilizes a sensor to detect nearby motion. Such a device is often integrated as a component of a system that automatically performs a task or alerts a user of motion in an area. They form a vital component of security, automated lighting control, home control, energy efficiency, and other useful systems.
The bounded weak echo region, also known as a BWER or a vault, is a radar signature within a thunderstorm characterized by a local minimum in radar reflectivity at low levels which extends upward into, and is surrounded by, higher reflectivities aloft. This feature is associated with a strong updraft and is almost always found in the inflow region of a thunderstorm. It cannot be seen visually. The BWER has been noted on radar imagery of severe thunderstorms since 1973 and has a lightning detection system equivalent known as a lightning hole.
A lightning detector is a device that detects lightning produced by thunderstorms. There are three primary types of detectors: ground-based systems using multiple antennas, mobile systems using a direction and a sense antenna in the same location, and space-based systems.
Convective storm detection is the meteorological observation, and short-term prediction, of deep moist convection (DMC). DMC describes atmospheric conditions producing single or clusters of large vertical extension clouds ranging from cumulus congestus to cumulonimbus, the latter producing thunderstorms associated with lightning and thunder. Those two types of clouds can produce severe weather at the surface and aloft.
Geophysical MASINT is a branch of Measurement and Signature Intelligence (MASINT) that involves phenomena transmitted through the earth and manmade structures including emitted or reflected sounds, pressure waves, vibrations, and magnetic field or ionosphere disturbances.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to the field of Meteorology.
ALDIS is a sensor network in Austria for the detection and localization of lightning discharge occurring during thunderstorms. In addition to the location of the strike point, the associated peak current is also estimated. ALDIS is a member of the pan-European lightning detection project EUCLID.
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