Vaisala, a maker of professional meteorological instruments and a global provider of weather- and environment-monitoring services, has developed the capability to identify the most-destructive lightning strikes.
Vaisala has combined data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s space-based lightning detection sensor with its own ground-based observations of lightning during thunderstorms to develop a precise methodology to identify damage-causing strikes and their locations, said Brooke Pearson, Vaisala’s global solutions manager for lightning. It will be launched in the first half of the next year, he said.
Vaisala, a Finnish company whose American headquarters are in Louisville, announced the breakthrough on Tuesday.
Theo Laughner, president of PowerGrid-RX Inc, an electric utilities consultancy in Tennessee, said, “This innovation in lightning detection and reporting by Vaisala will enable electric utilities to know not only where lightning has occurred but also where damage to power systems has likely resulted. This allows utilities to know if repairs are likely necessary before dispatching personnel, thereby reducing outage durations.”
A typical lightning strike, which lasts tenths of a microsecond (a millionth of a second) can cause harm, but continuing currents can last up to a tenth or two-tenths of a second causing immense damage. Continuing currents can start fires on land or oil and gas wells, and damage the electric grid or wind farms. Vaisala’s new patent-pending methodology offers precision in identifying the most dangerous lightning strikes and their duration and will help maintenance and fire crews prioritize post-storm inspections by quickly locating damage, Pearson said.
“The identification of lightning strikes with continuing current is the key to determine total charge transfer, a parameter highly valued by many industrial companies, electric utilities, and land management organizations,” Pearson said. “Electric power utilities are desperate to protect their equipment.”
Continuing current strikes account for less than 10 percent of cloud-to-ground lighting strikes, but given the 100,000 thunderstorms of varying size and intensity annually in the United States, and about 70 million cloud-to-ground lightning strikes nationally, the small percentage can be dangerous. On average there are approximately 50 continuing current strikes per storm and as many as 7 million per year.
The new methodology will help Vaisala offer better services to clients and potentially help the company generate more revenue, Pearson said. Vaisala group’s revenue was more than 330 million euros in 2017.
Pratik Joshi: 303-684-5310, pjoshi@dailycamera.com
