Bolts From the Blue

Researchers Install Lightning Detection System That Could Save Lives

By Keith Randall

With more than 1,800 thunderstorms pounding the earth at any given moment, lightning is estimated to strike the planet about 50 times every second.

That figure is not good news for Houston, which is the ground-zero site for lightning in Texas. Houston is also the lightning capital of the state and one of the most frequent areas of lightning in the world.

But for researcher Richard Orville and his lightning team, Houston is perfect. They have established one of the most sophisticated lightning detection systems anywhere — the Lightning Detection and Ranging Network, or LDAR — and it serves not only as a valuable research tool to learn more about lightning but also as a much-needed warning system.

The system has 12 sensors placed around the Houston metro area. When lightning strikes, it emits electromagnetic energy and these sensors relay information back to the Texas A&M campus, recording such data as the bolt’s intensity and exact origin. The location information is posted on a Web site (http://www.met.tamu.edu/ciams/ldar/about/about.html) and can be transmitted to regional National Weather Service offices.

“One sensor can record as much as 10,000 bits of information per second about the lightning location in that area,” says Orville, who serves as professor and head of the Department of Atmospheric Sciences in the College of Geosciences.

“All of this can happen within a second. There’s a huge amount of data we can record. But the bottom line is that this system can save lives. It can tell people, such as golfers out on the course or kids playing softball, that lightning is very near and to take precautions.

“It can easily give warnings from 5 to 20 minutes ahead that cloud-to-ground lightning may be approaching.”

Here’s a real news flash: There’s a lot of lightning out there.

Orville says that there are two kinds of lighting: intracloud, which can put on a brilliant display but is usually not dangerous, and cloud to ground, which can kill humans or livestock.

A bolt of lightning can be as hot as 50,000 degrees, or five times hotter than the surface of the sun. Worldwide, about 2,000 people are hit by lightning every year, about 30 percent of whom are killed.

In the United States, your chances of being hit are about 1 in 280,000, but if you are hit, you could die or the injuries could cause lingering lifetime effects.

The LDAR system is one of the most sophisticated of its kind anywhere, Orville adds.

It takes four people to run it and it never takes a holiday — it’s up and going 24 hours a day, its sensors relaying much-needed data about approaching storms and the lightning associated with them.   

“With this lightning detection system, we can learn more about lightning and its behavior,” Orville explains. “As we learn more and apply this knowledge to forecasting, better information can be available to the public regarding lighting safety.”