A Theoretical Evaluation of the Instrumental Decay Time on Electric Field Waveforms Excited by Lightning M-Components

In this article, we present a theoretical evaluation of instrumental decay time on the lightning electric field waveforms excited by lightning M -components. Fast and slow M -component waveforms were adopted as the injected lightning current. Simulation results for the electric field waveforms at 100 m and 15 km are presented. The results show that the M -component electric field waveforms suffer noticeable distortion when the flat antennas are characterized by small analog integrator time constants. The waveform distortions were defined in this article. It is shown that, compared to the electric field waveforms of the fast M -component, the electric fields of the slow M -component suffered larger distortion. This article emphasizes the importance of the taking into account of the instrumental decay time in lightning M -component electric field waveforms.