High-current lightning discharges in winter

• Published in: Electrical engineering in Japan Vol. 170; no. 1; pp. 8 - 15
• Main Authors: Ishii, Masaru, Saito, Mikihisa, Fujii, Fumiyuki, Matsui, Michihiro, Itamoto, Naoki
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hoboken Wiley Subscription Services, Inc., A Wiley Company 15.01.2010
• Subjects: back flashover; LEMP; lightning; lightning current; lightning discharge; lightning location; upward lightning; winter lightning
• ISSN: 0424-7760; 1520-6416
• DOI: 10.1002/eej.20874

Lightning electric‐field waveforms related to power line faults in winter have been identified. Most of those waveforms appear to be associated with upward lightning discharges with absolute peak currents of over 100 kA. They are quite different from common return‐stroke waveforms, and the lightning discharges which produce these characteristic waveforms are called GC (Ground to Cloud) flashes. These high‐current lightning discharges are distributed around the coastline in different ways depending on their polarities. The spatial distributions of high‐current lightning discharges around Japan are also investigated. It is revealed that the region of Honshu Island along the coastline of the Sea of Japan belongs to the area in which the density of high‐current lightning flashes is the highest in Japan through the year. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 170(1): 8–15, 2010; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/eej.20874