Development of a Long-Range Lightning Detection Network for the Pacific: Construction, Calibration, and Performance*

Abstract The waveguide between the earth’s surface and the ionosphere allows very low-frequency (VLF) emissions generated by lightning, called sferics, to propagate over long distances. The new Pacific Lightning Detection Network (PacNet), as a part of a larger long-range lightning detection network (LLDN), utilizes this attribute to monitor lightning activity over the central North Pacific Ocean with a network of ground-based lightning detectors that have been installed on four widely spaced Pacific islands (400–3800 km). PacNet and LLDN sensors combine both magnetic direction finding (MDF) and time-of-arrival (TOA)-based technology to locate a strike with as few as two sensors. As a result, PacNet/LLDN is one of the few observing systems, outside of geostationary satellites, that provides continuous real-time data concerning convective storms throughout a synoptic-scale area over the open ocean. The performance of the PacNet/LLDN was carefully assessed. Long-range lightning flash detection efficiency (D...