Boltek Lightning 2000 User Manual

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Lightning/2000

version 6.6

User’s Manual

July, 2014

™

112 Bruce Street

Huntland, TN 37345

Phone: 931.469.7608

e-Mail: [email protected]

World-Wide Web: www.aninoquisi.com

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Table of Contents

A Warning ________________________________________ 7

Introduction _________________________________________ 9

About Lightning/2000… _____________________________ 9

System Requirements ______________________________ 10

Lightning/2000 Installation _________________________ 12

Background Map Installation _______________________ 13

Device Driver Installation __________________________ 13

Basic Operation _____________________________________ 17

Using the Built-in Help _____________________________ 17

How Lightning/2000 Works _________________________ 18

The Boltek Hardware ______________________________ 20

CPU Usage _______________________________________ 21

Running Lightning/2000 ___________________________ 22

Customizing Lightning/2000’s Performance ___________ 23

Operating modes __________________________________ 24

Customizing the Colors, Fonts, and Alarms ____________ 25

Other Customizations ______________________________ 26

The Background Map ________________________________ 27

About the Background Map ________________________ 27

Status Bar _______________________________________ 28

Popup Menus_____________________________________ 28

Changing Map Object Colors _______________________ 29

Displaying/Hiding Map Layers ______________________ 29

Map Object Visibility ______________________________ 30

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Editing the Background Map _______________________ 30

Naming Map Objects ______________________________ 32

The Windows _______________________________________ 33

Raw Lightning Data _______________________________ 34

Real-time Lightning _______________________________ 38

Analysis _________________________________________ 41

Threat Assessment ________________________________ 44

Stroke Rate Graph ________________________________ 46

Rates ___________________________________________ 47

Totals ___________________________________________ 50

Control Panel ____________________________________ 52

Storm Statistics ___________________________________ 55

Detector Status ___________________________________ 61

NOWCast _______________________________________ 62

Summary ________________________________________ 62

Records _________________________________________ 63

The General Status Line ___________________________ 64

Archive Player ___________________________________ 65

The Custom Summary Window ________________________ 69

Overview ________________________________________ 69

Commands _______________________________________ 73

Keywords _______________________________________ 74

The Rate Counters ___________________________________ 77

The Major Counters _______________________________ 78

The Flash Rate Counters ___________________________ 81

The Percent Counters______________________________ 87

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The Stroke Rate Counters __________________________ 92

The Stroke Rate Change Counters ___________________ 96

Menu Commands ___________________________________ 105

File Menu _______________________________________ 105

Edit Menu ______________________________________ 109

Window Menu ___________________________________ 110

Options Menu ___________________________________ 114

Help Menu ______________________________________ 116

Counters Menu __________________________________ 117

Panels Menu ____________________________________ 129

Popup Menus ______________________________________ 131

Accessing Popup Menus ___________________________ 131

Popup Menu Reference ___________________________ 132

Using the Dialogs ___________________________________ 159

Align Map Dialog ________________________________ 160

Hardware Settings Dialog _________________________ 161

Range Scaling Dialog _____________________________ 167

Screen Captures Dialog ___________________________ 171

Alarm Properties Dialog __________________________ 187

Stroke Click Sound Dialog _________________________ 188

Stroke Types Dialog ______________________________ 190

E-Mail Options Dialog ____________________________ 192

FTP Options Dialog ______________________________ 197

Custom Summary Manager Dialog __________________ 200

Text Message Settings Dialog ______________________ 204

Software Squelch Dialog __________________________ 206

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Settings Dialog __________________________________ 207

Graph Stroke Types and Colors Dialog ______________ 211

Layer Order Dialog ______________________________ 213

Selected Topics ____________________________________ 215

Raw Lightning Data vs. Real-time Lightning _________ 215

Alerts __________________________________________ 216

Energy _________________________________________ 218

Noises __________________________________________ 219

Range Determination _____________________________ 220

Nearby Flashes __________________________________ 221

Sending E-mail via The Custom Summary ___________ 222

Antenna Placement _______________________________ 222

Troubleshooting _________________________________ 224

A Lightning Primer _________________________________ 227

Thunderstorms and Lightning Types ________________ 227

Recognizing Patterns of Strokes ____________________ 235

Lightning as an Indicator of Storm Behavior _________ 238

The Stroke Sort Process and Other Limitations _______ 242

Additional Information Sources ____________________ 244

Alphabetical Keyword List____________________________ 247

Custom Summary Language Definition _________________ 257

Custom Summary Commands and Keywords_____________ 259

Commands ______________________________________ 259

Count Keywords _________________________________ 269

Date/Time Keywords _____________________________ 275

Miscellaneous Keywords __________________________ 286

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Peak Count Keywords ____________________________ 294

Percent and Ratio Keywords _______________________ 299

Records Keywords _______________________________ 302

Total Count Keywords ____________________________ 311

Trend Keywords _________________________________ 314

Custom Summary Examples __________________________ 319

Performing Screen Captures and FTP _______________ 319

Sending E-Mail or Text Messages ___________________ 322

Sending Place-Specific E-Mail ______________________ 323

Sending Text Messages to Local Recipients ___________ 325

Sending Place-Specific Text Messages _______________ 325

Posting Status Updates to Your Twitter Account ______ 326

Index ____________________________________________ 327

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A Warning

Lightning/2000 produces information on several levels that can be used to detect approaching storms. Don’t allow your enthusiasm for tracking severe weather to cloud your judgment however. You should not depend solely on Lightning/2000 for your severe weather warnings.

Though we believe that Lightning/2000 is a useful tool in your severe-weather preparedness arsenal, it shouldn’t be used for the protection of life or property. Pay attention to other sources of information such as Doppler radar or weather radio. Multiple red alerts from Lightning/2000 should be taken seriously. When they occur, it’s a sign that thunderstorms are in your area. Small storms however may not generate multiple alerts. Such storms can pop up with no warning, yet they are still capable of producing dangerous cloud to ground lightning.

Lightning’s most common victims tend to be your electronic equipment, especially your computer. Lightning most frequently enters your computer through the phone line. It’s for this reason that we recommend using a surge protector with phone line protection. It is also a good idea to run any coaxial cables (from cable TV or satellite dishes) through a surge protector.

You should also avoid talking on a corded phone during thunderstorms. Using a cellular or cordless phone (as long as you’re indoors) is relatively safe.

Lightning routinely occurs several miles out in front of an approaching storm. Whether you’re actively tracking a storm or not, you should disconnect the phone or cable line from its modem if threatening weather approaches. By taking a minute to do these things, you could save yourself several thousand dollars in damages.

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An approaching tornado calls for immediate action. Seek shelter on the lowest floor or basement of the building you’re in near the center of the building. Avoid windows at all costs. Under no circumstances should you waste time by opening windows! If you’re in a mobile home, you should seek shelter outside by lying flat against the ground (or better yet, in a ditch or culvert) away from trees and automobiles.

Aninoquisi cannot be held responsible for injury or death resulting from use of this software contrary to this warning.

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Chapter 1

Introduction

About Lightning/2000… • System

Requirements • Lightning/2000 Installation

•

Background Map Installation • Device

Driver Installation

About Lightning/2000…

Lightning/2000 is a software tool that can be used to replay “canned” lightning archive files created by Lightning/2000, or when used on a system that has the Boltek lightning detection hardware and antenna, can detect and analyze real-time lightning data.

Though every effort has been made, a certain percentage of actual lightning strokes will be misidentified as noises. In general, the precise location of any particular lightning flash as plotted by Lightning/2000 cannot be guaranteed.

However with the advent of Lightning/2000 v4.6, the ability to determine – in most cases – when an individual lightning flash is relatively nearby became possible

When such flashes are detected, a special “storm” is depicted. Rather than being a wedge shape, these special nearby storms are circular or elliptical. When one of these storms is shown, there is an excellent chance that lightning is imminent or is occurring in the immediate area.

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In version 5.4 and later, the use of CID (Compact Intercloud Discharge) strokes can identify many more nearby lightning flashes with a high degree of accuracy and a false alarm rate of nearly zero. Also, the option to require nearby flashes to include CID strokes is now available (Options | Settings… from the main menu). This option can reduce the false alarm rate for identifying nearby flashes using the previously proven technique (first included in version 4.6) to zero. However if storms in your area typically do not produce CID strokes, then this option should not be enabled.

System Requirements

• The Boltek lightning detector is required for

detection of lightning.

• A Pentium 1 GHz processor or faster is

recommended for lightning detection.

• At least 256 MB of memory is recommended

above and beyond the amount of memory required by Windows.

• Windows XP, Windows Server, Windows Vista,

Windows 7 (32-bit and 64-bit versions) and Windows 8 (32-bit and 64-bit versions) are supported. (Only Windows XP is supported when using the old ISA StormTracker card.)

• 10 Mb of hard-drive space is required for the

basic installation, though daily archive files will eventually consume much more than this.

• A graphics card with at least 640x480 resolution

with at least 32K colors is strongly recommended. Unexpected artifacts will occur if

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using a graphics driver mode with only 16 or 256 colors. Aninoquisi is not responsible for problems observed in such a case.

•

Do not attempt to run Lightning/2000 and any other software that accesses the lightning detection hardware at the same time.

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Lightning/2000 Installation

If you have a Lightning/2000 CD, just insert the CD into your computer’s CD drive. The Lightning/2000 setup program should start up automatically. If it does not, navigate to the CD and run the installation program manually.

If you downloaded a ZIP file from the Aninoquisi website, just double-click on the file and run the setup program that’s in the ZIP folder.

You will be prompted for a password during the installation process. That password will be in a text file on the CD, or will have been sent to you via email.

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Background Map Installation

The largest or most detailed background map should be copied automatically from your Lightning/2000 installation CD to the Lightning/2000 installation directory on your computer. To install a different map, follow the procedure below.

The procedure for installing a background map is very straightforward. The .AMF format of the supplied map(s) is proprietary to Aninoquisi. Maps in this format are available only from Aninoquisi. If you move and need new background maps, they can be produced for a small fee.

1. Start Lightning/2000 by choosing the lightning icon

on the Programs menu (available from the Start button).

2. Choose Install map… from the File menu.

3. Choose the map you wish to install and click the OK

button. The map, if necessary, will be copied to the Lightning/2000 installation directory on your hard drive and installed as your default background map.

Device Driver Installation

If you are running Lightning/2000 under Windows XP and using the Boltek StormTracker ISA card (no longer in production),

you will first need to install the included Windows XP device driver.

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The installation of this driver is not required to use the Boltek LD-250 portable lightning detector, nor is it required when using the Boltek StormTracker PCI card.

If you are using the LD-350, the installation of the proper driver should happen automatically when you plug the LD350 into a USB port and turn on the power to the unit. If this does not happen, you may download the driver from the Aninoquisi website’s Downloads page.

However if you are using the StormTracker PCI card, you will first have to install its device driver. Lightning/2000 will not be able to access the PCI card unless device driver is installed.

The installer for the PCI device driver can be found on the Lightning/2000 installation CD, or it can be downloaded from the Aninoquisi website’s Downloads page. The current version of the PCI device driver has its own installer to make its installation easy and quick.

Here is the procedure for installing the "genport" device driver for the ISA card in Windows XP:

1. Double-click the "Add Hardware" applet in the Control

Panel.

2. Press the "Next>" button.

3. Let the wizard search for new hardware (it shouldn't

find any).

4. Click the "Yes, I have already connected the hardware

button"

5. Select "Add a new hardware device" (scroll to the

bottom of the list box) and click the "Next>" button.

6. Select "Install the hardware that I manually select from

a list (Advanced)" and click the "Next>" button.

7. Ensure that "Show All Devices" is selected and click

the "Next>" button.

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8. After waiting for it to think a while, click the "Have

Disk..." button.

9. Click the "Browse..." button and navigate to the folder

where Lightning/2000 is installed (C:\Program Files\Aninoquisi\Lightning2000 is the default folder).

10. Select the "genport" file.

11. Click the "OK" button.

12. Select the "Lightning/2000" driver and click "OK".

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Chapter 2

Basic Operation

Using the Built-in Help • How

Lightning/2000 Works • The Boltek

Hardware • CPU Usage • Running

Lightning/2000 • Customizing

Lightning/2000’s performance • Operating

modes • Customizing the Colors, Fonts, and

Alarms • Other Customizations

Using the Built-in Help

You can display help on almost any topic. Most dialog boxes have a Help button.

You can double-click on many items on the screen (each counter, for example) to display help on the item.

Pressing the F1 key while a menu selection is highlighted will display help on that menu selection.

Most of the popup menus (accessed by right-clicking in a window) have a Help… command that you can select to display help on a window.

Select Help | Contents… from the main menu to display to display the main help table of contents.

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How Lightning/2000 Works

Every lightning flash (whether it’s cloud-to-ground (CG) or intercloud/intracloud (IC)) produces several electric pulses (strokes) that are picked up by the antenna on your Boltek system. Each of these strokes is analyzed to determine whether it is lightning or not. The ones that aren’t lightning are categorized as “noises”.

Note: only the LD-350, the StormTracker ISA or PCI hardware allows you to discriminate between IC and CG strokes. When using the LD-250, all strokes detected are of the “unknown” type. This is because the LD-250 only passes along very general information about each stroke, rather than the detailed waveforms that are extracted from the other hardware.

A noise can be either non-lightning electrical activity or lightning that cannot be sufficiently analyzed. Some nonlightning electrical activity looks enough like lightning that it slips through the analysis and is logged as a lightning stroke.

Particularly during times of heavy lightning activity, some strokes are so garbled that they cannot be discriminated as CG or IC. These are discarded as noises. Most of these garbled strokes are IC strokes. It is entirely possible that the number of noises will equal or exceed the number of strokes during times of heavy activity. This is normal and is not a problem with the system. With version 4 of Lightning/2000, a substantial percentage of these formerly discarded IC strokes can be recovered. Because of their borderline nature, they are not plotted unless you have selected the “Plot recovered noises” option from the Options menu or the Control Panel.

The “good” strokes are saved for analysis. The results of this analysis end up being displayed in the Analysis window, the

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Threat Assessment window, and, optionally, the Real-time Lightning window.

Each lightning stroke is displayed in two different ways as soon as it is detected. The detector activity window shows the strength of each incoming stroke. The Raw Lightning Data window plots each stroke according to its strength and direction. No distance information is displayed in the Raw Lightning Data window.

The Raw Lightning Data window can be converted into the Real-time Lightning window by choosing Raw Lightning Data Properties | Real-time lightning from the window’s popup menu, or by choosing Options | Real-time lightning from the main menu, or by checking the “Realtime” checkbox on the Control Panel. The Real-time Lightning window attempts to plot individual lightning flashes in a geographic position, superimposed on a background map.

The positions of flashes in the Real-time Lightning window are derived from the information developed by and displayed in the Analysis window. Every minute, the flashes that have been detected over the last few minutes are analyzed as a group to come up with storm data that is displayed in the Analysis window.

By giving the user a variety of ways to look at lightning data, we’ve tried to “cover all the bases.” The thinking is that even though any single component of the Lightning/2000 display may not be sufficient to come up with a decent analysis of what’s going on, all of the information taken together lets the user construct a good picture.

The general status line at the bottom of the main window is our attempt to perform a meta-analysis on all of the information and come up with a “best guess” at how alert you ought to be. When the general status line turns red, you need to consult any sources of weather information available to find out exactly what’s happening.

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And with the custom summary, you can construct your own criteria for what constitutes an alert and change the general status alert level independently.

Because of the inexact nature of the analysis process, it is not uncommon for a general status alert to be displayed when a storm is still some distance away. The alternative would have been to not display an alert when a storm was potentially nearby. In general, more false alarms will occur than missed alerts. Missed alerts are less common.

With the advent of Lightning/2000 v4.6, the ability to determine – in many cases – when an individual lightning flash is relatively nearby became possible

Please do not contact Aninoquisi when a false alarm occurs. This is a normal part of the operation of Lightning/2000. We are constantly striving to reduce the incidence of false alarms.

Check our website regularly for updates of Lightning/2000 components.

The Boltek Hardware

For Lightning/2000 to be able to detect and display live lightning data, one of the Boltek lightning detection hardware systems must be connected to the computer.

There are currently four hardware choices: the StormTracker PCI card or StormTracker ISA card (no longer in production), both of which install inside your computer, the LD-250, which connects to your computer via the serial port

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(or to a USB port with the included adaptor), and the LD-350, which connects to a USB port.

With the StormTracker card or the LD-350, Lightning/2000 has access to the raw waveform description of each lightning stroke. Analysis performed on these waveforms enables Lightning/2000 to determine what kind of lightning (CG or IC) is occurring.

The LD-250 performs its own analysis on each lightning stroke. It does not determine what kind of lightning stroke has occurred. Therefore when using the LD-250, all lightning strokes will be displayed using the colors and symbols defined for the “unknown” stroke type.

Do not attempt to run Lightning/2000 and any other software that accesses the Boltek hardware at the same time.

CPU Usage

When there is little or no lightning activity, Lightning/2000’s usage of your computer’s CPU is minimized. However, when there is significant lightning activity, the lightning detection hardware is checked continuously so that no lightning activity will be missed.

You may, if you desire, cause Lightning/2000 to check the Boltek hardware continuously by setting the appropriate option in the Settings Dialog (Options | Settings… from the main menu).

It is normal during times of significant lightning activity for Lightning/2000 to attempt to use as much of the computer’s processor as possible. Though other tasks may be performed by the computer at these times, they will proceed more slowly than if there was little or no lightning activity.

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Running Lightning/2000

After a successful installation, click the “Start” button, click “Programs”. The Lightning/2000 icon will be at or near the end of the “Programs” menu. Click this icon to start Lightning/2000.

Important: if you are running Lightning/2000 under Windows 2000 or Windows XP, and using the Boltek ISA StormTracker, you will first need to install the device driver. Instructions for this procedure are in Chapter 1.

When running Lightning/2000 on Windows 7 or Windows 8 systems, it is possible that you will need administrator privileges to run the program. You can cause any program to run with administrator privileges by right-clicking on the program’s executable and then clicking on the “Compatibility” tab and then checking the “Run this program as an administrator” box. The Lightning/2000 executable is named “lightning.exe”. It is normally located in the folder “C:\Program Files (x86)\Aninoquisi\Lightning2000.

The first thing you need to do is to install your background map that was supplied when you purchased Lightning/2000. When installing Lightning/2000 from a CD, the largest map file on the CD will automatically be installed. If you wish to install a different map, choose File | Install map… from the main menu and then pick your map file. If your Lightning/2000 purchase was via a download of the installer and a ZIP file that contains your map, you will have to extract the map file from the ZIP before you can install the map.

The first time Lightning/2000 runs, it will read settings from the default preferences files. The windows will then be arranged so that each window is visible (except for the Summary , NOWCast, Records, Analysis, and Storm Statistics windows), and no window spills outside the frame of the main window.

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The next thing you need to do is to open the Hardware Settings Dialog (Options | Hardware…) and enable the lightning detection hardware. See Chapter 8 for details on this dialog box.

You will probably want to customize the appearance of the Lightning/2000 display to suit your needs. Basically, rightclicking the mouse on any visible element causes a popup menu to appear. These popup menus contain various options that can be changed.

Customizing Lightning/2000’s

Performance

There are a few system parameters that may be dependent on your particular installation. The placement of your antenna and your location partly determine how your system will perform. Since we can’t allow for the peculiarities of your installation, there are some parameters that can be changed that will affect how Lightning/2000 analyzes data.

The Hardware selection in the Options menu controls the squelch. The higher the squelch is turned up, the fewer weak strokes will be detected and processed by Lightning/2000. Turning up the squelch will not only affect the energy ratio, but could affect how storms are ranged. Storms may be ranged too closely if the squelch is turned up too high. You should generally leave the squelch at 0 or 1 to get the most accurate analysis of the data, though a squelch setting of 4 or 5 with the LD-350 will provide an equivalent level of noise rejection. Though setting the squelch to a higher level will prevent many noises from being detected, those noises aren’t included in the data analysis no matter what squelch setting you choose.

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When used in conjunction with the Range Scaling dialog, the squelch can be used to adjust how storms are ranged.

The Range Scaling dialog can be used to affect how the range to storms is determined. You can use this dialog to multiply the range to a storm by a constant factor that depends on the original range of the storm. See chapter 8 for details on the Range Scaling dialog.

Operating modes

The user interface of Lightning/2000 can be viewed in one of several modes: simple mode, stroke mode, flash mode, and advanced mode. Flash mode and stroke mode implement the “classic” look of the user interface. However you are free to arrange the windows and counters in whatever fashion you wish in any mode.

The “mode” is basically a pre-defined look to the user interface. You may select one of the modes by choosing Window | Arrange from the main menu.

Older versions of Lightning/2000 detected only strokes. Each stroke represents a single detection from the lightning detection hardware. But lightning actually occurs as flashes. Each flash is what we think of when we see a bolt of lightning. A flash consists of many strokes. The closer a lightning flash is, the more strokes will be detected from it. Nearby flashes have been observed to consist of greater than 100 strokes in extreme cases.

As each lightning stroke is processed, it is checked to see if it belongs to any of the current lightning flashes. Once no more strokes are seen as belonging to a flash, the flash is released into the system and is tallied.

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In both the simple and advanced modes, flashes are displayed in the Real-time Lightning window; however the Raw Lightning Data window may be switched between the display of strokes and flashes.

In one of the “classic” modes (choose Window | Arrange | Classic from the main menu), either flashes or strokes may be displayed. You may change whether flash or stroke information is presented by choosing Options | Flash mode from the main menu.

The picture on the left shows strokes in the Raw Lightning Data window; the picture on the right shows flashes. Whereas it is difficult or impossible to pick out where the actual storm is when viewing strokes, it becomes easy to do so when looking at the flashes.

Customizing the Colors, Fonts,

and Alarms

In general, right-clicking on any object on the screen will pop up a small menu containing the properties of the object that can be changed.

There are 64 different alarms that can sound. By default, only the most important of the alarms are enabled. All alarms are changed from the appropriate object’s popup menu. For example, to change the alarm settings for the stroke rate, right-click on the stroke rate counter; to change the alarm

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settings for the IC percentage, right-click on the IC% counter, and so forth.

The storm range alarms may only be changed from within the Analysis window. The general status line alarms may be changed by right-clicking on the status line.

Other Customizations

The contents of the Custom Summary Window and the General Status Line may be customized by changing the templates used. The custom summaries currently running may be changed in the Custom Summary Manager. Choose Options | Custom Summary Manager… from the main menu to access the Custom Summary Manager.

By using one of the custom summary commands, the General Status Line alert level and the background color of the Custom Summary window may be changed.

Because the Status Line and the Custom Summary Window are controlled by a template that is a simple text file, that template file may be edited with any ordinary text editor (such as Notepad).

By changing the #Write and #WriteLine commands contained in the template files, you may change the text that is written out in the Custom Summary Window and/or Status Line from English to any language.

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Chapter 3

The Background

About the Background Map • Status Bar •

Popup Menus • Changing Map Object

Colors • Displaying/Hiding Map Layers •

Map Object Visibility • Editing the

Background Map • Naming Map Objects

About the Background Map

Map

The background map uses a “flat” projection. Each degree of latitude spans the same distance on the screen as each degree of longitude. This means that for locations further from the equator, circles drawn on the map will appear increasingly elliptical. Despite this, each storm or lightning flash plotted on the map is in the precise position that is calculated for it. Because of the limitations in the old maps (prior to version 6), this was not always the case.

The map consists of several “layers”. Each layer is a single type of map object (i.e. countries, states, grid lines, roads, rivers, etc.). Any layer may be made visible or invisible by right-clicking on the map and checking or unchecking the layer on the “Layers” sub-menu.

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Status Bar

The status bar at the top of the map window allows you to perform various operations on the map, and to see the exact location of the mouse cursor on the map.

Use the “+” button to enter zoom mode. When in zoom mode, click and drag a box around the area you wish to zoom into.

Use the “-“ button to zoom out. You will zoom out to the previous map view, or if there is no previous view, to a view that encompasses two times the map area.

Use the pan button to pan the map view. Click and drag on the map to pan the map.

The map radius button shows the current radius of the map view in miles or kilometers (change the units in the Settings dialog). Press this button to open the Align Map dialog, where you can specify an exact value for the map’s radius.

Popup Menus

Right-click on the background map to display the map’s popup menu. The popup menu contains four sub-menus: (1) the sub-menu for the window you clicked in (Real-time Lightning, Threat Assessment, or Analysis), (2) the sub-menu

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for the particular map object that you clicked on, (3) the “Add Map Object” sub-menu, and (4) the “Layers” sub-menu.

The window’s sub-menu allows you to change various properties of the window itself, including the map’s center. The map object’s sub-menu contains various properties of the particular map object that you clicked on (such as color or font). The “Add Map Object” sub-menu allows you to add a variety of different objects to the map. The “Layers” submenu allows you to turn off or turn on any of the various map layers.

Changing Map Object Colors

Changing the color of any object on the map is easy. Just right-click on the particular object whose color you want to change. The second sub-menu on the popup menu will contain all of the properties of the object. For objects with an area, choose “Color…” to change its color. For objects drawn with just a line (like rivers), choose “Outline | Color…” from the menu.

Displaying/Hiding Map Layers

Right-click on the map. The fourth sub-menu in the popup menu is the “Layers” menu. It contains a list of map layers (in order from the first layer drawn to the last layer drawn). Each displayed layer has a check mark next to it. Unchecking a layer makes it invisible; checking a layer makes it visible.

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Map Object Visibility

Most elements of the map itself (cities, rivers, roads, etc.) are only visible if you zoom in on the map. The zoom level at which a particular map feature appears is related to the size of the map feature. For map objects that occupy an area (like cities), the larger in area the map object, the further zoomed out you can be and still see the object. For map objects that are lines (like rivers), the longer the map object, the further zoomed out you can be. For map objects that are just a point (like places), they are only visible if you are zoomed in to a small area.

Cities and places may be made to appear no matter how zoomed out your are. Right-click on the city or place and check the “Always Visible” selection from the map object’s “Properties” sub-menu.

Editing the Background Map

Adding New Map Features

Right-click on the background map and select the "Add Map Object" sub-menu from the popup menu. You may add a

variety of objects to the map, including places, roads, and freshwater features.

Select the map object you wish to add and then click on the map where you would like the map object to go.

Editing Map Features

To edit the shape of a map feature, right-click on the map feature and choose "Edit" from the map feature’s

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“Properties” sub-menu. You will then see the nodes that define the shape of the map feature. You may click and drag a node to a new position. Double-clicking on a node adds a new node to the feature.

Right-click on the feature and choose "Edit" again to quit editing that object and return the object to its normal appearance.

Naming a City or Place

To change the name of a city or place, right-click on the city or place and choose "Name..." from the “Properties” submenu. To remove the name of a place, right-click on it, choose “Name…” from the “Properties” sub-menu and delete the current name and click the OK button.

Moving a Place's Name

To change where the name of a place is drawn, click on the name and drag it to a new position.

Deleting Map Features

To delete a map feature, right-click on the map feature and select "Delete..." from its Properties sub-menu. You will be asked to confirm the deletion.

Saving Changes to the Map

If you have made changes to the background map, you may choose "File | Save map..." from the main menu. If you have changed the map and not saved the changes, you will be asked if you want to save those changes when closing Lightning/2000.

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Naming Map Objects

Attach a name to a map object by right-clicking on the map object and choosing “Name…” from its sub-menu on the popup menu.

Names of roads are somewhat different than names of other map objects. You can enter just a number for the road name and that number will be displayed inside a generic road symbol.

You can enter a road number preceded by one of these combinations of letters. Each one of these will cause a special road symbol to be displayed:

A a generic “A” level road AS an Autostrada AUS an Australian federal highway B a generic “B” level road BAB a German autobahn (Bundesautobahn) C a generic “C” level road D a generic “D” level road E a Euroroute FA a France Autoroute G a China federal highway I a U.S. Interstate highway M a Great Britain motorway NH an India national highway NZ a New Zealand state highway S a U.S. state highway US a U.S. federal highway

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Chapter 4

The Windows

Raw Lightning Data • Real-time Lightning

•

Analysis • Threat Assessment • Stroke

Rate History • Rates • Totals • Storm

Statistics • Detector Status • NOWCast •

Summary • Records • The General Status

Line

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Raw Lightning Data

Closer storm to the west, with more distant storms to the north. Note the “tail” of strokes pointing towards the center of the screen towards the west.

The Raw Lightning Data window contains exactly what the name implies. Lightning strokes are grouped into one of 6 ages: oldest, older, old, new, newer, and newest. Each stroke type in each of the 6 ages may be drawn in a different color and shape. There are 8 types of strokes displayed: +CG (positive cloud-to-ground), -CG (negative cloud-to-ground), +IC (positive intercloud/intracloud), -IC (negative intercloud/intracloud), +CID (positive compact intercloud discharge), -CID (negative intercloud discharge), Leader, and Unknown. CID strokes can be displayed only when strokes are being displayed. Switch to stroke mode by right-clicking in the window and choosing Raw Lightning Data

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Properties | Settings | View | Strokes from the popup menu.

For Boltek StormTracker or LD-350 users, the first 7 stroke types will be displayed. For Boltek LD-250 users, only the “Unknown” stroke type is used. The LD-250 performs its own rudimentary analysis on each lightning stroke and only passes along the amplitude of each stroke. The serial connection used by the LD-250 does not support the data rate necessary to pass along the raw stroke information that is necessary to perform a sophisticated analysis.

Each of the 6 ages of strokes remains on the screen for an amount of time (up to an hour) that you define. Change the stroke shapes, colors, and persistences by right-clicking in the window and choosing Raw Lightning Data Properties | Strokes… to display the Stroke Types dialog.

The stroke types most likely to be indicative of nearby or severe storms will be plotted last (i.e. on top). Here is the order in which strokes are plotted (each stroke type will be plotted on top of the stroke types later in the list):

• +IC

• -IC

• -CG

• +CG

• +CID

• -CID

• Leader

• Unknown

You can also convert the Raw Lightning Data window to the Real-time Lightning window by choosing Real-time lightning from the window’s popup menu. While more aesthetically pleasing to most users since it displays lightning

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stroke on a background map, only the Raw Lightning Data window allows you to see fine detail a storm’s structure, such as the prevalence of CG versus IC strokes, and their relative amplitudes.

The data in the Raw Lightning Data window has been processed only enough to determine its strength and direction. Stronger flashes (they aren’t necessarily nearer flashes) are displayed closer to the center of the window. Flashes to the north are displayed towards the top of the window (but only if your antenna is aligned properly); flashes to the south are displayed towards the bottom of the window, and so on. (The alignment of the antenna may be changed in the Hardware Settings dialog.)

In stroke mode, every stroke will be displayed the instant it is detected. But in flash mode, only those flashes that are determined to not be reflections will be displayed. (The aggressiveness of the reflection determination may be changed by choosing Options | Reflection rejection from the main menu.) The selection of flash mode or stroke mode is available only when using one of the “classic” window arrangements. The display of flashes is the default when using the “simple” or “advanced” window arrangements.

In advanced mode (choose Window | Arrange | Advanced from the main menu), you may choose between the display of flashes or raw strokes. To do this, right-click in the window and choose Raw Lightning Data Properties | Settings | View from the popup menu. You can choose between viewing strokes and flashes in the Settings Dialog.

One of the hallmarks of a nearby storm as it appears in this window is a “tail” of stronger strokes. Because stronger strokes are plotted closer to the center of the window, these “tails” will point towards the center of the screen.

More distant storms won’t exhibit this feature. They are characterized by a cluster of strokes further from the center of the screen.

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A moderately distant storm to the north-northwest. There is no “tail” of strokes towards the center of the screen. A somewhat more nearby storm can be seen to the northeast.

The contents of the Raw Lightning Data window may be copied to the clipboard by choosing Copy from the Edit menu.

The click sound produced by new strokes may be changed by right-clicking in the window and choosing Raw Lightning Data Properties | Sound… from the window’s popup menu. Some users have reported that the click sound stops playing after Lightning/2000 has been running for a while, particularly during times of heavy lightning activity. We have researched this problem, and it appears to be due to irregularities with sound card drivers and/or Windows’ implementation of the function used to play the click sound.

Clicking on a cluster of strokes or flashes in the Raw Lightning Data window opens the Storm Statistics window, which displays detailed data about a storm.

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Real-time Lightning

Real-time Lightning window showing a powerful, relatively nearby storm with some close strokes.

The Real-time Lightning window is displayed by choosing Raw Lightning Data Properties | Real-time lightning from the Raw Lightning Data window’s popup menu (by right-clicking in the window). Incoming lightning strokes are analyzed using a variety of statistical techniques.

Those strokes that cannot be correlated with an actual storm will not be displayed in the Real-time Lightning window. The setting of the reflection rejection option can affect how many strokes are drawn. See reflection rejection for more details.

The positions of the strokes in this window are based on the position of storms in the Analysis window. Display storms in the Real-time Lightning window by choosing Real-time Lightning Properties | Settings | Show storms from the

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window’s right-click menu. Click on one of the storms to display detailed information about the storm in the Storm Statistics window.

The border of the window will change color to indicate when a yellow or red storm range alert is in effect. The Analysis window is the central authority for determining when a storm range alert is in effect.

With the advent of Lightning/2000 v4.6, the ability to determine – in many cases – when an individual lightning flash is relatively nearby became possible

The popup menu also contains options for toggling the display of the range rings and azimuth radials. The click sound produced by new strokes may be changed by rightclicking in the window and choosing Real-time Lightning Properties | Sound… from the window’s popup menu.

You can configure any element within the window (including map features) by right-clicking on the element or map feature.

Because of the constantly changing nature of the strokes from a particular storm, the Analysis window may indicate that a storm is moving back and forth from one minute to the next. The Real-time Lightning window attempts to smooth out such momentary changes so that storms do not wander around as much when the individual strokes are plotted there.

When first starting Lightning/2000, it takes as long as 30 seconds for strokes to be plotted in the Real-time Lightning window. This is because a sufficient number of strokes must be accumulated to perform a reliable analysis of the storms that may be present. It is not possible to tell from a single

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stroke or flash how far away it is when using the Boltek hardware.

Also, the very first stroke detected in a particular direction will not be plotted. A single detection cannot be reliably placed within a storm. Multiple strokes in a particular direction need to occur before a “storm” is detected in that direction.

An image of the Real-time Lightning window can be captured and saved to a file in any or all of three formats (PNG, BMP, or JPG). See screen capture in the index to locate details

The Real-time Lightning window can be made to resize itself (every 5 minutes) so that the majority of lightning activity is displayed by choosing Real-time Lightning Properties | Settings | Auto zoom from the right-click menu. The auto zoom option is not available when using a BMP or JPG background map.

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Analysis

Analysis window showing a storm just to the west.

Lightning/2000 analyzes the incoming lightning strokes that have occurred over the last 5-20 minutes. The results of this analysis are displayed in the Analysis window. Denser areas in the raw data window are identified as “storms”. A “storm” doesn’t necessarily mean a single, well-defined storm however.

Storms are normally drawn as hollow wedge shapes, colorcoded by intensity. Storms with a preponderance of positive cloud-to-ground strokes are shown as solid wedges. That’s because such storms are more likely to exhibit severe characteristics than other storms. Such storms can only be discerned when using the StormTracker or LD-350 hardware. When using the LD-250, storms undergoing rapid intensification are shown as solid wedges, and storms that have recently seen a marked decrease in their stroke rates are also colored in, but in a darker version of their outline color.

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Individual thunderstorms may occupy a large area, but frequently the area of the storm that is producing the bulk of the lightning is quite small. A single storm may have a number of lightning producing areas. Heavy lightning production doesn’t always correlate with the severity of the storm, and a low level of lightning doesn’t always mean a storm should not be monitored.

Lightning/2000 is one more tool in your arsenal of tools that can be used to gauge the severity of approaching storms. Using it as your only source of weather data is not advisable however.

At the current time it isn’t possible for Lightning/2000 (or any other single-antenna lightning detection system) to detect a storm that’s “hidden” behind a nearer storm if they are both in the same direction. This is perhaps the most common reason for inaccurate ranging of storms. If two storms lie along the same line of azimuth, the result in the analysis window will be a single storm that lies midway between the two.

We use the gross features of lightning strokes to determine their range. The analysis performed is similar to statistical techniques used in predicting election results. Just as it’s ill advised to make an election prediction based on polling a small number of voters, the ranging on small storms is only an approximation. However storms that get ranged closely are likely to be close no matter how many strokes they contain.

The “squatness” of the storm (the distance between the inner and outer edges of its range box) is an indicator of how confident Lightning/2000 is in the ranging. Big storms will have a more squat appearance than small storms. More strokes means more confidence in the ranging. Think of the length of the range box as “error bars” on the range.

This having been said, there’s still the possibility of a bad ranging taking place. The ranging algorithm isn’t foolproof,

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but it seems to perform better than anything we’ve seen before.

The number of CID strokes per minute is an excellent indicator of a close storm. A distant storm will never be seen to produce a large number of CID strokes.

The energy ratio counter is also a good indicator of whether or not a storm is nearby. Frequent red alerts on this counter is a sign that you should check a radar at your earliest opportunity.

With the advent of Lightning/2000 v4.6, the ability to determine – in many cases – when an individual lightning flash is relatively nearby became possible

You can configure any element (including map features) of the analysis window by right-clicking on the element. The analysis window is updated once per minute during real-time lightning detection, and once per simulated minute while playing back an archive (however it won’t be updated more than once per second no matter what speed an archive is played back at).

Clicking on a storm’s range box will display the Storm Statistics window. See Storm Statistics window for more details.

The settings of the red and yellow alert range rings (as well as other properties pertaining to the analysis window) can be changed by right-clicking in the Analysis window.

The storm range alarms are triggered by the information in this window. When a storm range alarm is triggered, a colored border will be drawn around the Analysis window, the

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Threat Assessment window, and the Real-time Lightning window (if the analysis is shown there).

The Analysis window can be made to resize itself (every 5 minutes) so that the majority of lightning activity is displayed by choosing Analysis Properties | Settings | Auto zoom from the right-click menu

The contents of the Analysis window may be copied to the clipboard by choosing Copy from the Edit menu.

Threat Assessment

A severe storm off to the northwest, with a local, non-severe storm just to the west.

The Threat Assessment window is a depiction of storm activity over the last 5-20 minutes. The information in this window is based on the average position of all lightning flashes detected in the last 5-20 minutes.

When the stroke rate is at least 500 per minute, only the last 5 minutes worth of flashes are used. If the stroke rate is at least

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100 per minute, the last 10 minutes worth of flashes are used. If the stroke rate is at least 50 per minute, the last 15 minutes of flashes are used. Stroke rates below 50 per minute cause the previous 20 minutes of flash data to be used.

The average range of all strokes in a similar direction is used to calculate the placement of the colored areas in the Threat Assessment window. Through this averaging technique, a more realistic appraisal of storm activity can be determined.

With the advent of Lightning/2000 v4.6, the ability to determine – in many cases – when an individual lightning flash is relatively nearby became possible

The Threat Assessment window employs reflection rejection (Options | Settings… from the main menu), if you have that option turned on.

You may click on a storm in this window and display more detailed statistics about the storm.

The border of the window will change color to indicate when a yellow or red storm range alert is in effect. The Analysis window determines when a storm range alert is in effect.

The Threat Assessment window can be made to resize itself (every 5 minutes) so that the majority of lightning activity is displayed by choosing Threat Assessment Properties | Settings | Auto zoom from the right-click menu. The auto zoom option is not available when using a BMP or JPG background map.

The contents of the Threat Assessment window may be copied to the clipboard by choosing Copy from the Edit menu.

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Stroke Rate Graph

The dramatically increasing CG flash rate is indicative of a severe storm. This graph shows the flash rates.

The rate of nearby flashes increases as the storm approaches.

The total stroke rate plus the noise rate.

The stroke rate graph shows you at a glance the rate of change of lightning activity. You can change the length of time that the graph comprises from 15 minutes to 24 hours by rightclicking on the graph.

The peak activity (within the length of the graph) is indicated with a text label. Several other text labels indicate the time at various points over the period covered by the graph. The font used to draw the labels can be changed by right-clicking on the label.

Version 6 of Lightning/2000 allows you to show a variety of rate information on the graph. Flash rates, strokes rates, and other information may be shown. You may select the information you want to appear on the graph by choosing Stroke types and colors… from the graph’s right-click menu.

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The graph is automatically rescaled so that the peak level occupies the entire height of the graph. The graph update interval is dependent on the width of the graph window and the length of the graph.

During times of no lightning activity, occasional electrical discharges may be detected. During these periods, the graph will take on a “picket fence” appearance, with each picket representing a single stroke or flash. This is normal and is not indicative of a problem.

The Stroke Rate History window is very useful for spotting trends in storm activity. A sudden increase in the flash rate can be clearly seen. Also, a sudden surge in the fraction of +CG strokes or –IC strokes becomes obvious, and can be an indicator of a severe storm.

An image of the Stroke Rate History can be saved to a file at a specified interval. See the Screen Captures dialog for details.

The contents of the graph window may be copied to the clipboard for use in other applications by choosing the Copy command from the Edit menu.

Rates

The Rates window as it appears when using the Boltek StormTracker hardware.

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The Rates window as it appears when using the LD-250.

The Rates window in advanced mode when using the StormTracker.

The Rates window in simple mode when using the StormTracker.

The Rates window contains 31 counters. The leftmost group contains the most important counters: the total flash rate counter, the strong stroke rate counter, the noise rate counter, and the CID stroke rate counter.

When using the LD-250, since there is no stroke type information, only 6 counters are displayed: the total flash rate counter, the strong stroke rate counter, the noise rate counter, the stroke rate percentage change counter, and the stroke rate counter.

You may make individual counters invisible or visible by selecting them on the Counters menu. You may drag individual counters to new positions. Counters may also be resized by clicking and dragging the edge or corner of the counter.

The default simple mode configuration displays only 6 counters. The non-displayed counters can be viewed by dragging down the bottom of the Rates window.

The stroke rate counters are updated as often as once every one-tenth of a second. The stroke subtype percentage

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counters are updated as often as every half second, as are the stroke rate change counters.

You can change the look of each counter in this window individually by right-clicking on the counter or its label. You can change the look of all the counters or labels at the same time by choosing an option from the Counters menu on the menu bar at the top of the main window.

A record value in a counter is denoted by the counter taking on an “inverted” look (the colors of the counter’s digits and background are reversed).

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Totals

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The Totals window (in flash or stroke mode) as it appears when using the

LD-250.

The Totals window as it appears in advanced mode when using the Boltek

StormTracker or LD-350.

The Totals window contains the number of strokes of each of the various stroke types, as well as energy and noises, that has been detected since midnight.

You can change the look of each counter in this window individually by right-clicking on the counter or its label. You can change the look of all the counters or labels at the same

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time by choosing an option from the Counters menu on the menu bar at the top of the main window.

It was originally thought that the total number of strokes detected would always be greater than the total number of flashes detected. This was because each flash must consist of at least one stroke. However it is possible to observe a flash total that is greater than the stroke total. If a stroke occurs just before midnight, it will be included in the totals for that day. But the corresponding flash can be registered just after midnight because we must wait to be sure that no other strokes will occur that are part of that flash. When this unlikely event occurs, we can see the flash total counter at “1” and the stroke total counter at “0”. This seemingly impossible situation will continue until a flash occurs that contains more than one stroke.

A record value in a counter is denoted by the counter taking on an “inverted” look (the colors of the counter’s digits and background are reversed).

Control Panel

The Control Panel window allows you to quickly change various settings.

On the Stroke types tab, you can toggle the drawing of any of the stroke types without having to open the Stroke Types Dialog.

Since CID strokes are strokes and not flashes (they are components of flashes), the will not be displayed if you are

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viewing flashes in the Real-time Lightning window or Raw Lightning Data window.

You may view strokes in the Raw Lightning Data window. Right-click in the window and choose "Settings..." from the popup menu to select the "View | Strokes" option.

On the Stroke ages tab, you can toggle the drawing of any of the 6 stroke ages without having to open the Stroke Types Dialog.

On the Other settings tab, you can switch between raw lightning data and real-time lightning modes, as well as switch between stroke mode and flash mode. You can also toggle the drawing of strokes that are recovered noises.

The Dialogs tab has shortcut buttons that activate several different dialog boxes.

The Gauges tab lets you see how often the lightning detector is being queried for a new stroke, and how many strokes have been allocated by the system at any given time.

Hardware access meter

This meter indicates how frequently Lightning/2000 is able to check the lightning detection hardware to see if a lightning stroke has been detected.

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During periods of little or no lightning activity, Lightning/2000 only checks the lightning detection hardware intermittently. At these times, the system load meter will only have the first or second bar lit.

Allocated strokes counter

This counter shows the total number of strokes allocated at any time. During times of little activity, this number will not change.

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Storm Statistics

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The Storm Statistics window appears whenever you click on a storm in the Analysis window, or (optionally) the Real-time Lightning window. It is also displayed when you click on a group of stroke or flashes in the Raw Lightning Data window.

The information presented here is meant to offer a detailed look at the character of a storm. The Stats page of the window contains text information that may be copied to the clipboard. The Graphs page contains a concise look at storm characteristics presented graphically.

The information contained on the Stats page includes:

• The date and time the information is valid for

• The general classification of the storm

o A “distant” storm is one that lies beyond the

yellow alert range ring

o A “regional” storm is one that lies between

the yellow and red alert range rings

o A “nearby” storm is one the lies inside the

red alert range ring

o (The distances of the alert range rings may be

set in the Analysis window or the Real-time Lightning window.)

• The bearing of the storm (North=0, East=90,

South=180, West=270)

• The ranging chain -- a record of how Lightning/2000

determined the range of the storm.

• The estimated range boundaries of the storm

• The number of strokes examined in the storm

• How many of those strokes were unique (usable).

• How many strokes were recorded in the last minute

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• How many strokes were recorded in the minute

before that

• How many strokes were recorded in the last 5

minutes

• The stroke density in strokes per angular degree per

minute

• The estimated severity index (100 or above indicates

a very severe storm)

• The average amplitude of all strokes in the storm

• The average amplitude of all usable CG strokes in the

storm

• The average recent amplitude

• The maximum amplitude detected

• The average wavelength (in arbitrary units) of all

usable CG strokes in the storm (not available when using the LD-250.)

• The average wavelength (in arbitrary units) of all

strokes in the storm (not available when using the LD-250.)

• The energy ratio of the storm

• The percentage of CG strokes in the storm (not

available when using the LD-250.)

• The CG flash multiplicity. This is the ratio of the

number of CG strokes to the number of CG flashes. A flash may consist of one or more strokes, so this number represents the average number of strokes per flash. The flash multiplicity will typically increase as a storm draws closer. (Not available when using the LD-250.)

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• The IC flash multiplicity. This is the ratio of the

number of IC strokes to the number of IC flashes. A flash may consist of one or more strokes, so this number represents the average number of strokes per flash. The flash multiplicity will typically increase as a storm draws closer. (Not available when using the LD-250.)

• The number of unique CG flashes in the storm (Not

available when using the LD-250.)

• The number of CG stroke subtypes in the storm

(Not available when using the LD-250.)

• The number of unique IC flashes in the storm (Not

available when using the LD-250.)

• The number of IC stroke subtypes in the storm (Not

available when using the LD-250.)

• The number of recovered noises in the storm.

Recovered noises are IC strokes whose precise characteristics cannot be determined. (Not available when using the LD-250.)

• The number of leader strokes in the storm (Not

available when using the LD-250.)

• The number of compact intercloud discharge (CID)

strokes in the storm (Not available when using the LD-250.)

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The information contained on the Graphs page includes:

• The amplitude distribution graph for the storm

• The wavelength distribution graph for the storm

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• The stroke type distribution graph for the storm.

(The distribution of flashes is shown when in flash mode, simple mode, or advanced mode)

o Negative cloud-to-ground

o Positive cloud-to-ground

o Negative intercloud

o Positive intercloud

o Leaders

o Compact intercloud discharge

• The stroke rate history for the storm. The

information in the stroke distribution graph may be changed by choose Strokes types and colors… from the graph’s right-click menu.

The amplitude distribution graph shows the distribution of the amplitudes of the strokes in the storm, from lowest to highest. More nearby storms will have more high amplitude strokes, while distant storms will show mainly low amplitude strokes.

The wavelength distribution graph shows the distribution of the wavelengths of the strokes in the storm, from lowest to highest.

The stroke type distribution graph shows the relative number of the various stroke types within the storm. More +CG strokes (or flashes, when in flash mode, simple mode, or advanced mode) tend to indicate a greater chance of a severe storm.

The stroke rate history graph shows the stroke rate trend of the storm over the last 5 minutes. The colors and fonts used in this stroke rate history graph may be changed independently of the colors in the Stroke Rate History window, though it is advisable to make them the same for purposes of clarity.

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Right-click on elements in this window to change their properties.

Detector Status

The Detector Status window in simple and advanced modes.

The Detector Status window gives a visual indication of each incoming lightning stroke. The signal strength meters are updated immediately following the detection of a stroke. The number of segments lighted is directly proportional to the strength of the stroke. Strong strokes light all of the segments. The peaks are held for 2 seconds.

You can cause a “click” sound to play for each stroke that is detected. Right-click on the Detector Activity window and choose Sound… to activate this option.

When using the StormTracker hardware, the top row of the signal strength meters shows IC strokes and the bottom row shows CG strokes.

When using the LD-250, the top row of the signal strength meters shows the north-south amplitude of the stroke and the bottom row shows the east-west amplitude.

The clock displays the time in the local format, based on your Regional Settings in the Windows Control Panel. The time zone abbreviation is formed by using the first letter of each word in the name of your time zone. You may change the names of the time zones for your area by choosing Options | Settings… from the main menu.

The system load meter shows how often the software is able to check the detector board. There isn’t any significant chance of data being lost due to excessive system load unless

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the system load meter spends a lot of time in the red area. Occasional peaks in the yellow or red segments are normal. They occur when the system is performing a particularly computation-intensive operation, such as updating the analysis window or the graph window.

During periods of little or no lightning activity, Lightning/2000 only checks the lightning detection hardware intermittently. The system load meter will light only the first bar at these times.

NOWCast

The NOWCast window presents recent statistics textually. Any alerts in effect are listed. The recent history of the stroke rate, the strong stroke rate, the energy rate, the rates of the stroke subtypes (if using the StormTracker hardware) and the noise rate are detailed.

NOWCasts are not saved automatically, but the current NOWCast may be saved at any time by choosing Save | NOWCast from the File menu. The hotkey for this action is F5.

If you’re viewing a NOWCast, it can be saved to any location by choosing Save as… from the File menu.

Summary

The Summary window gives a summary of lightning activity since midnight local time. The total number of strokes, strong strokes, energy units, the various stroke subtypes (if using the StormTracker hardware) and noises are presented

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along with their average rates. Additionally the total amount of time spent under the various alerts is given. Peak counts for each of the counters are listed. Finally, statistics on the number of archive files on your hard drive are given.

Each day’s summary is saved to a file at midnight. The summary file is a text file that can be opened with a simple word processor such as Wordpad or Notepad. Saved summaries can also be opened from Lightning/2000 by choosing Open | Summary… from the File menu.

The current summary may be saved to the hard disk by choosing Save | Summary from the File menu. The hotkey for this action is F6.

Records

The Records window contains a list of record setting values that have been recorded since you installed Lightning/2000. The window is updated each time a new record value is recorded.

Both the record value and the date and (if applicable) the time the record value was achieved are recorded.

A record value in a counter is denoted by the counter taking on an “inverted” look (the colors of the counter’s digits and background are reversed).

The records are stored in the Windows Registry. If you install Lightning/2000 on a new computer, and you wish to retain the records that have already been set, you can export the record information from the Registry.

The records are stored in the Registry key: “HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Aninoquisi\Lightnin g2000\Records”. Choose “File | Export” from the Registry

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editor’s main menu to save the records to a file that can then be taken over to the new computer and imported into the Registry there.

The General Status Line

The general status line at the bottom of the main window represents Lightning/2000’s assessment of the threat level presented by recent lightning activity. It is based on the recent counts and the analysis window. In general, a red alert will not be shown unless cloud to ground lightning can be expected near your location.

The text displayed in the General Status Line is based on the contents of a template file. The default template file is “Status Line Template.txt”, located in the Lightning/2000 installation folder.

The contents of the template file may consist of any of the keywords or commands used for the Custom Summary Window. See the chapter pertaining to that window for details.

If you want to experiment with either the custom summary template or status line template, you should make a copy of it first so that any changes you make can be abandoned if they don't work out so well.

You can use a command to change the alert level of the General Status Line. These commands are typically used when a set of conditions occurs that merits the attention of the user, such as when a severe storm is determined to be relatively nearby.

Because of the limited amount of space on the General Status Line, the text output by its template should be limited to what will fit onto the status line. That text may consist of multiple

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lines. Multiple lines output by the status line template will be concatenated together so that they occupy a single line.

A general red alert, unlike any other red alert, always remains in effect for at least 5 minutes.

The general status line (when using the default template) will describe thunderstorm activity as being either "nearby", "regional", or "distant". A nearby storm is one that is depicted as being inside the red alert distance (as defined in the Analysis window). A regional storm is one that is depicted as being inside the yellow alert distance (as defined in the Analysis window), but outside the red alert distance. A distant storm is one outside of the yellow alert distance.

The intensity of a storm is listed as one of four levels: thundershower, thunderstorm, strong thunderstorm, or severe thunderstorm.

Archive Player

The archive player controls the playback of archive files or recent activity. The archive player is accessed by choosing View from the File menu. The speed of the playback can be controlled with the up and down arrow buttons. The playback may be paused, stopped, or reset by pressing the appropriate button.

Only one archive or recent activity playback may be active at any time. If you’re playing back an archive file and wish to view recent activity, you will have to cancel the archive playback first.

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During archive playback, the detector status window, the general status line, the summary and NOWCast windows reflect the real-time lightning activity, not the activity presented by the archive.

At any time during the playback of an archive, you can press the export button to start exporting archived lightning flashes to a format that can be read by Google Earth. You may also export data in a comma delimited text format.

Press the export button a second time to interrupt the exporting of flashes.

You may start and stop the exporting of flashes any number of times.

Though Google Earth can (presumably) display any number of flashes, its operation can become somewhat sluggish when it is asked to display a large number of flashes. We have found that displaying over 100,000 flashes causes its operation to become quite a bit slower. Displaying 10,000 or fewer flashes seems to cause little or no slowdown.

When you close the archive player (or exit Lightning/2000), you will be prompted for the name of the file that is to receive the exported data.

The playback rate of the archive is an exact indication of how long it will take to complete the playback of the archive. For example, playing back a daily archive that comprises 24 hours at 100x will take exactly 0.24 hours (or a little over 14 minutes).

Playing back archives at high rates of speed will tax slower systems. If the archive contains a large number of strokes, high-speed playback will probably tax even a fast machine. Archive playback at high speeds can be made to go more smoothly. Minimizing windows that have components that are updated frequently will keep those windows from being updated, thus making the archive playback go more smoothly.

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The biggest offender is the Real-time Lightning/Raw Lightning Data window. High-speed archive playback goes much more smoothly when this window is minimized.

When you first play back an archive file that was recorded with a different kind of lightning detection hardware than what you have, a special preferences file “Foreign Archive Preferences” will be created. Changes you make to the colors, fonts, alarm levels, or other preferences while running a “foreign” archive will be automatically saved to the “Foreign Archive Preferences” file when you exit the archive player.

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Chapter 5

The Custom

Summary Window

Overview • Commands • Keywords

Overview

For a complete description of every Custom Summary command and keyword, see Appendix D.

This window executes a series of commands to display text, change the color of the window, and play sounds. It gets the text it displays from a file in the Lightning/2000 installation folder. The default name of the file is "Custom Summary Template.txt", but any text file can be used as the custom summary template.

The custom summary template is a text file that can be edited just like any other text file. On most systems, the Notepad application is the default application for editing text files. Word processors (such as Microsoft Word) will not produce a text file by default, however most can produce a plain text file as an option.

You may change the name of the text file used by the Custom Summary window by right-clicking in the window and choosing “Custom Summary Manager…” from the popup menu. See the manual section on the Custom Summary

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Manager for details on how to change or edit the text file used as a template.

A template file is also used to generate the text displayed on the General Status Line. That template file is of the same format, and may use any of the keywords or commands used in the Custom Summary Window.

The custom summary window gives you unprecedented flexibility and control over what information is displayed, and (optionally) what information is automatically emailed or sent to your Twitter account. You might (for example) create a very brief custom summary that gets sent to as a text message to cell phones (assuming they can be reached via an email address), or a highly specific and descriptive custom summary that is to be emailed to a list of clients. It is entirely up to you.

If you have chosen to email the custom summary, the first line of text in the custom summary will be used as the title of the email. See the Email Options Dialog for more information.

The text file that generates the Custom Summary window consists of a series of statements. A statement may either be a conditional statement (one starting with if) or a command. The most frequently used commands are the ones used to write text into the window (the #Write and #WriteLine commands).

A comment line is any line beginning with a semicolon (;) character. Comment lines will not be included in the Custom Summary window. They are mainly for use in complex custom summary templates so that you can explain how you are using the various keywords in the template.

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You may also end any line with a comment by typing a semicolon. Any text on the line after the semicolon will not be included in the custom summary window.

All keywords used in the Custom Summary start with the @ character. Commands start with the # character. There are 5 reserved words that you can use to control which commands are executed: if, then, else, elseif, and endif.

The structure of an if statement is:

if expression then

ifif

One or more statements

elseif

elseif expression then

elseifelseif

One or more statements

elseif

elseif expression then

elseifelseif

One or more statements

else

else expression then

elseelse

One or more statements

endif

endifendif

then

thenthen

then

thenthen

then

thenthen

then

thenthen

Only the if, then, and endif parts of the if statement are required. Both the elseif and else parts are optional. There may be any number of elseif parts, but there may only be one else part. The else part is executed only if neither the if part nor any of the elseif parts were executed.

A statement in the if, else, or elseif parts may be a command or another if statement.

An “expression” is basically any kind of mathematical expression, usually containing one or more of the keywords. There are several special symbols and words that can be used in an expression:

greater than

less than

equals

not equals

less than or equals to

greater than or equals to

and

a logical and of two expressions

andand

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a logical or of two expressions

oror xor

xor

a logical exclusive or of two expressions

xorxor +

the sum of two expressions or the concatenation of

two quoted strings

the difference of two expressions

the multiplication of two expressions

the division of two expressions

div

the division of two expressions, truncated to a whole

divdiv

number

Here are a few examples of valid if statements:

if @StrokeCount( 5 ) > 1000 then

ifif #AlertStatusLineYellow endif

endif

endifendif

if ( @CGFlashCount > 50 ) and

ifif then

then

thenthen #AlertStatusLineYellow

if @CloseStormCount > 0 then

ifif #Sound( ‘beep5’ ) #WriteLine( ‘A storm is nearby.’ ) endif

endif

endifendif endif

endif

endifendif

if @HardwareType = 0 then

ifif #WriteLine( ‘No lightning detector is installed.’ )

elseif

elseif @HardwareType = 1 then

elseifelseif #WriteLine( ‘LD-250 installed’ )

elseif @HardwareType = 4 then #WriteLine( ‘LD-350 installed’ )

else

elseelse #WriteLine( ‘StormTracker installed’ ) endif

endif

endifendif

then

thenthen

then

thenthen

and ( @StrokeCount > 1000 )

andand

then

thenthen

then

thenthen

When using “and” in an expression, the part after the “and” is evaluated only if the part before the “and” is true. This is because the entire expression (before and after) can be true only if the before part is true and the after part is true. If the before part is false, then the entire expression is false whether or not the after part is true. Since it does not matter in this case if the after part is true or false, there is no sense in wasting time evaluating the after part.

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When using “or” in an expression, the part after the “or” is evaluated only if the part before the “or” is false. This is because the entire expression (before or after) can be false only if the before part is false and the after part is false. If the before part is true, then the entire expression is true whether or not the after part is true. Since it does not matter in this case if the after part is true or false, there is no sense in wasting time bothering to evaluate the after part.

For a complete description of the format of the custom summary template, see Appendix C, “Custom Summary Language”.

A complete description of all Custom Summary commands and keywords may be found in Appendix D.

Some examples of Custom Summary templates can be found in Appendix E.

Commands

A command is any word preceded by a # sign. There are 3 commands that may be included in a template file that pertain to the general status line (the #AlertStatusLine commands) at the bottom of the main window, so they should only be used in templates for the general status line.

A command is typically issued as a result of one or more conditions being true. For example, the status line template may determine that a severe storm is nearby and issue the #AlertStatusLineRed command.

By using the custom summary commands, a wide variety of actions may be taken. Screen captures may be produced (in

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addition to or instead of the normal automatic screen capture process). Text files may be produced, consisting of virtually any information, and then be sent to a server via FTP. Commands may be sent to a serial port to control external devices. Text may be written to the Custom Summary window, consisting of an almost unlimited variety of information produced by Lightning/2000. An automatically generated email may be sent.

The names of the commands are not case sensitive.

Keywords

Keywords that evaluate to a per minute stroke or flash count can be followed by a parameter. Then the count will evaluate to the number of strokes or flashes in the last N minutes, where N is the parameter.

The parameter "N" may be either a positive integer, or a positive real number. Real numbers less than 1 must start with a zero.

For example, "0.1" is a valid parameter, but ".1" is not.

For example, the @CGFlashCount keyword will evaluate to the number of CG flashes in the last minute, but if you specify @CGFlashCount( 2 ), then it will evaluate to the number of CG flashes in the last 2 minutes. @CGFlashCount( 1 ) is identical to @CGFlashCount. There is a limit of 60 minutes for the various stroke counts.

By default, the @Peak keywords will return the peak count for the day.

Entering ( N ) (where N is a number of minutes) after the @Peak keyword will return the peak value in the last N minutes.

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The @Trend keywords return a percentage difference between an earlier count and the current count.

Keywords are not case sensitive, so @cgflashcount is identical to @CGFlashCount or @CGFLASHCOUNT.

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Chapter 6

The Rate Counters

The Major Counters • The Percent Counters

•

The Flash Rate Counters • The Stroke

Rate Change Counter

The counters in the Rates window convey a wealth of information, though some are considered to be more important than others. The most important counters are on the left side of the window and are: the stroke or flash rate counter, the strong stroke rate counter, the energy ratio counter, and the noise rate counter.

A counter panel consists of the following parts:

• The counter (the digits displayed)

• The background

• The caption (in the lower-left corner of the panel)

• The alert bar (optional)

The properties of any of the counter’s parts may be changed by right-clicking on the item you wish to change.

Most of the counters in the Rates window can have record values. A new record is indicated by the counter taking on an “inverted” look – the colors for the counter text and the background are reversed.

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The Major Counters

Stroke Rate Counter

Stroke rate counter, shown with and without an alert bar.

Default yellow alert trigger level: 50 Default red alert trigger level: 250 Record kept: Yes

The stroke rate counter indicates the number of lightning strokes of all kinds detected within the last minute.

In stroke mode, this counter is located at the far left of the Rates window. In flash mode, the total flash rate counter is located in that position and the stroke rate counter’s default location is just below the total flash rate counter. You may need to drag down the bottom edge of the Rates window to view this counter in flash mode. In simple and advanced modes, this counter is prominently visible.

A new record value is denoted by swapping the colors of the counter and its background.

Stroke Rate Change Counter

Stroke rate change counter, shown with and without an alert bar.

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Default yellow alert trigger level: 25 Default red alert trigger level: 50 Record kept: No

The stroke rate change counter shows the percentage change in the stroke rate between one minute ago and now.

For example, if the stroke rate one minute ago was 100 and the stroke rate now is 120, then the counter would read “+20%”; if the stroke rate one minute ago was 120, and the stroke rate now is 100, then the counter would read “-17%”.

If the stroke rate one minute ago was zero, and the current stroke rate is zero, "--" is displayed. If the stroke rate one minute ago was zero, and the current stroke rate is non-zero, "*" is displayed.

Sudden changes in the stroke rate for a storm could be signs that the storm is exhibiting potentially dangerous behavior. A rapid increase in stroke rate followed immediately by a rapid decrease, or vice versa has been linked to certain severe characteristics, such as hail, microbursts, and even tornadoes.

When you specify a trigger level for the red or yellow alert, you are specifying the percentage change that must occur if the stroke rate is 100 strokes per minute. The percentage change that is needed for alert status at higher stroke rates is somewhat lower, and the percentage change that is needed for alert status at lower stroke rates is higher.

At 1000 strokes per minute, the percentage change required for an alert is one-half the value specified as the trigger level. At 10 strokes per minute, the

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percentage change required is twice the specified trigger level.

Energy Ratio Counter

Energy rate counter, shown with and without an alert bar.

Default yellow alert trigger level: 150 Default red alert trigger level: 250 Record kept: No

This counter shows the energy ratio over the last minute.

The energy ratio is an arbitrary measure of the energy contained in lightning strokes. It is a good indicator of a close storm. An energy ratio of over 150% is a good sign of a relatively nearby storm.

Sometimes the first indicator that a thundershower is forming nearby will be the red alert on the energy ratio counter.

At least five strokes per minute must occur before either the red or yellow energy ratio alert will be indicated.

Noise Rate Counter

The noise rate counter has no alarms associated with it.

Record kept: Yes

The noise rate counter shows the number of noises that have been received in the last minute.

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A noise is defined as any electrical discharge that cannot be positively identified as a lightning flash.

Noises include electrical noise from household appliances, signals transmitted by wireless electronic devices, and lightning strokes that have an insufficiently well-defined waveform.

During times of heavy activity, as many or more noises than strokes may be detected. Most of these noises are intercloud or intracloud (IC) strokes that cannot be positively identified as such.

A new record value is denoted by swapping the colors of the counter and its background.

The Flash Rate Counters

Total Flash Rate Counter

Total flash rate counter, shown with and without an alert bar.

Default yellow alert trigger level: 50 Default red alert trigger level: 250 Record kept: Yes

The total flash rate counter shows the total number of flashes of all kinds in the last minute. This includes CG and IC flashes. For the LD-250, this counter

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shows an accurate estimate of the total number of flashes per minute.

A new record value is denoted by swapping the colors of the counter and the background.

Nearby Flash Rate Counter

Nearby flash rate counter, shown with and without an alert bar.

Default yellow alert trigger level: 1 Default red alert trigger level: 2 Record kept: Yes

The nearby flash rate counter shows the number of nearby flashes within the last minute.

Nearby flashes are very likely to be no more than a few miles away. With version 4.6 and later of the software, only flashes that exhibit certain characteristics are logged as nearby flashes. This is a significant change from older versions when this counter registered strong flashes. (The Custom Summary language keywords still refer to these types of flashes as “strong” flashes rather than “nearby” flashes.) If you want to reset the record value for this counter from its previous value, right-click on the counter and choose Reset record… from the popup menu.

A red alert on this counter is almost always an indication that a storm is nearby. It is not necessarily an indicator that the storm is going to impact your location, since the storm may be moving away from you.

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A new record value is denoted by swapping the colors of the counter and its background.

CG Flash Rate Counter

The CG flash rate counter, shown with and without an alert bar.

Default yellow alert trigger level: 20 Default red alert trigger level: 100 Record kept: Yes

The CG flash rate counter shows the number of cloudto-ground flashes recorded in the last minute. A CG flash is what is ordinarily thought of as a lightning bolt. Each flash is composed of one or more (typically 3 to

10) strokes. Each of these strokes can be detected by the lightning detector if the flash occurs closely enough to the detector. For distant flashes, it is normal to detect only the strongest stroke of the flash.

A new record value is denoted by swapping the colors of the counter and the background.

This counter is not used with the LD-250.

Positive CG Flash Rate Counter

The +CG flash rate counter, shown with and without alert bars.

Default yellow alert trigger level: 25 Default red alert trigger level: 100

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Record kept: Yes

The +CG flash rate counter shows the number of positive cloud-to-ground strokes in the last minute. Positive CG strokes are more common in severe storms.

A new record value is denoted by swapping the colors of the counter and the background.

This counter is not used with the LD-250.

Negative CG Flash Rate Counter

The -CG flash rate counter, shown with and without alert bars.

Default yellow alert trigger level: 25 Default red alert trigger level: 100 Record kept: Yes

The -CG flash rate counter shows the number of positive cloud-to-ground strokes in the last minute.

A new record value is denoted by swapping the colors of the counter and the background.

This counter is not used with the LD-250.

IC Flash Rate Counter

The IC flash rate counter, shown with and without an alert bar.

Default yellow alert trigger level: 2

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Default red alert trigger level: 10 Record kept: Yes

The IC flash rate counter shows the number of intercloud flashes in the last minute.

Each flash is composed of at least one stroke, but IC flashes have been observed to be comprised of 30 or more strokes during nearby storms.

A new record value is denoted by swapping the colors of the counter and the background.

This counter is not used with the LD-250.

Negative IC Flash Rate Counter

The -IC flash rate counter, shown with and without an alert bar.

Default yellow alert trigger level: 25 Default red alert trigger level: 100 Record kept: Yes

The -IC flash rate counter shows the number of negative intercloud flashes in the last minute. A correlation between –IC flashes and storm severity has been observed.

Each flash is composed of at least one stroke, but IC flashes have been observed to be comprised of 30 or more strokes during nearby storms.

A new record value is denoted by swapping the colors of the counter and the background.

This counter is not used with the LD-250.

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Positive IC Flash Rate Counter

The +IC flash rate counter, shown with and without an alert bar.

Default yellow alert trigger level: 25 Default red alert trigger level: 100 Record kept: Yes

The +IC flash rate counter shows the number of positive intercloud flashes in the last minute.

Each flash is composed of at least one stroke, but IC flashes have been observed to be comprised of 30 or more strokes during nearby storms.

A new record value is denoted by swapping the colors of the counter and the background.

This counter is not used with the LD-250.

CID Stroke Rate Counter

The CID stroke rate counter, shown with and without an alert bar.

Default yellow alert trigger level: 2 Default red alert trigger level: 10 Record kept: Yes

The CID stroke rate counter shows the number of compact intercloud discharges recorded in the last minute. The CID stroke is discussed in more detail in Appendix A, A Lightning Primer.

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CID strokes are only detected from relatively nearby storms, those within 150 miles or 250 km. It is rare to see more than a single CID stroke in a minute from a storm that is more than 100 miles or 150 km away. A CID stroke rate of 5 or more is a very good sign that a storm is relatively nearby. On rare occasions, it is possible to see CID strokes from more distant storms.

A new record value is denoted by swapping the colors of the counter and the background.

Since CID strokes are strokes and not flashes (they are components of flashes), the will not be displayed if you are viewing flashes in the Real-time Lightning window or Raw Lightning Data window.

You may view strokes in the Raw Lightning Data window. Right-click in the window and choose "Settings..." from the popup menu to select the "View | Strokes" option.

This counter is not used with the LD-250.

The Percent Counters

Since these counters’ alarms are not based on stroke rates, but on percentages, it is possible to see yellow and even red alerts triggered for these counters even with no lightning activity within several hundred miles. For example, a distant severe storm is likely to have an abundance of positive CG strokes over negative CG strokes – a condition that would trigger an alert on the “+CG%” counter.

When in flash mode (rather than stroke mode), the percent counters indicate the percentage of flashes rather than strokes.

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IC Percent Counter

No alarm is associated with the IC percent counter.

Record kept: No

The IC percent counter shows the percentage of IC (intercloud/intracloud) strokes compared to the total number of strokes in the last minute. CID (compact intercloud discharge) strokes are included as IC strokes.

For example, if the stroke rate is 200 and the IC stroke rate is 50, this counter would indicate “25%”.

IC strokes are more commonly detected from relatively nearby storms (within 250 km or 150 miles).

As a storm approaches, the percentage of IC strokes will typically rise. However, it depends a lot on the nature of the storm. For this reason, there is no longer an alarm associated with the IC percent counter.

When running Lightning/2000 in flash mode, this counter shows the percentage of IC flashes, rather than strokes.

At least 10 strokes per minute must occur before the red or yellow alert is triggered.

This counter is not used with the LD-250.

Positive IC Percent Counter

The +IC percent counter has no alarms associated with it.

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Record kept: No

The positive IC percent counter shows the percentage of +IC (positive intercloud/intracloud) strokes compared to the number of IC strokes in the last minute.

For example, if the IC stroke rate is 50 and the +IC stroke rate is 40, this counter would indicate “80%”.

IC strokes are more commonly detected from relatively nearby storms (within 250 km or 150 miles).

As a storm approaches, the percentage of IC strokes will typically rise.

When running Lightning/2000 in flash mode, this counter shows the percentage of +IC flashes, rather than strokes.

+IC strokes are the more common type of IC stroke detected.

This counter is not used with the LD-250.

Negative IC Percent Counter

The –IC percent counter has no alarms associated with it.

Record kept: No

The negative IC percent counter shows the percentage of -IC (negative intercloud/intracloud) strokes compared to the number of IC strokes in the last minute.

IC strokes are more commonly detected from relatively nearby storms (within 250 km or 150 miles).

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As a storm approaches, the percentage of IC strokes will typically rise.

-IC strokes are the less common type of IC stroke detected. A preponderance of –IC stroke versus +IC strokes is a trait commonly associated with severe storms.

When running Lightning/2000 in flash mode, this counter shows the percentage of -IC flashes, rather than strokes.

At least 10 IC strokes per minute must occur before the red or yellow alert is triggered.

This counter is not used with the LD-250.

CG Percent Counter

The CG percent counter has no alarms associated with it.

Record kept: No

The CG percent counter shows the percentage of CG (cloud-to-ground) strokes compared to the total number of strokes in the last minute.

For example, if the stroke rate is 100 and the CG stroke rate is 75, this counter would indicate “75%”.

CG strokes can be detected from storms at any range, and have been detected from storms over 600 miles (1000 km) away.

When running Lightning/2000 in flash mode, this counter shows the percentage of CG flashes, rather than strokes.

This counter is not used with the LD-250.

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Positive CG Percent Counter

The +CG percent counter, shown with and without an alert bar.

Default yellow alert trigger level: 25 Default red alert trigger level: 50 Record kept: No

The positive CG percent counter shows the percentage of +CG (positive cloud-to-ground) strokes compared to the number of CG strokes in the last minute.

For example, if the stroke rate is 50 and the CG stroke rate is 45, this counter would indicate “90%”.

CG strokes can be detected from storms at any range, and have been detected from storms over 600 miles (1000 km) away.

+CG strokes are the less common type of CG stroke, and are associated more with severe storms, though they do occur in ordinary storms too. They have been observed to be more likely to occur in the average thunderstorm as the storm begins to dissipate.

In the Analysis window, storms that have a preponderance of +CG strokes are colored in.

When running Lightning/2000 in flash mode, this counter shows the percentage of +CG flashes, rather than strokes.

At least 10 CG strokes per minute must occur before the red or yellow alert is triggered.

This counter is not used with the LD-250.

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Negative CG Percent Counter

There are no alarms associated with the –CG percent counter.

Record kept: No

The negative CG percent counter shows the percentage of -CG (negative cloud-to-ground) strokes compared to the number of CG strokes in the last minute.

For example, if the CG stroke rate is 40 and the –CG stroke rate is 20, then this counter would indicate “50%”.

CG strokes can be detected from storms at any range, and have been detected from storms over 600 miles (1000 km) away.

When running Lightning/2000 in flash mode, this counter shows the percentage of -CG flashes, rather than strokes.

-CG strokes are the more common type of CG stroke.

This counter is not used with the LD-250.

The Stroke Rate Counters

The alarm levels of the stroke rate counters are set by default so that yellow alerts can be triggered by storms that are still moderately far away. Red alerts on these counters will not normally be triggered until a storm is either fairly nearby, or is extremely intense and more distant.

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IC Stroke Rate Counter

The IC stroke rate counter, shown with and without an alert bar.

Default yellow alert trigger level: 50 Default red alert trigger level: 250 Record kept: Yes

The IC stroke rate counter shows the number of IC (intercloud/intracloud) strokes that have been detected in the last minute. CID (compact intercloud discharge) strokes are included in this total.

IC strokes are more easily detected from storms that are relatively nearby (within 150 km or 250 miles).

A new record value is denoted by swapping the colors of the counter and its background.

This counter is not used with the LD-250.

Positive IC Stroke Rate Counter

The +IC stroke rate counter, shown with and without an alert bar.

Default yellow alert trigger level: 30 Default red alert trigger level: 150 Record kept: Yes

The positive IC stroke rate counter shows the number of +IC (positive intercloud/intracloud) strokes that have been detected in the last minute.

IC strokes are more easily detected from relatively nearby storms (within 250 km or 150 miles).

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Positive IC strokes are the more common type of IC strokes.

A new record value is denoted by swapping the colors of the counter and its background.

This counter is not used with the LD-250.

Negative IC Stroke Rate Counter

The –IC stroke rate counter, shown with and without an alert bar.

Default yellow alert trigger level: 30 Default red alert trigger level: 150 Record kept: Yes

The negative IC stroke rate counter shows the number of -IC (negative intercloud/intracloud) strokes that have been detected in the last minute.

IC strokes are more easily detected from relatively nearby storms (within 250 km or 150 miles).

Negative IC strokes are the less common type of IC strokes. A preponderance of –IC stroke versus +IC strokes has been associated with severe storms.

A new record value is denoted by swapping the colors of the counter and its background.

This counter is not used with the LD-250.

CG Stroke Rate Counter

The CG stroke rate counter, shown with and without an alert bar.

Default yellow alert trigger level: 40

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Default red alert trigger level: 200 Record kept: Yes

The CG stroke rate counter shows the number of CG (cloud-to-ground) strokes that have been detected in the last minute.

CG strokes can be detected from storms at any range, and have been detected over 600 miles (1000 km) away.

A new record value is denoted by swapping the colors of the counter and its background.

This counter is not used with the LD-250.

Positive CG Stroke Rate Counter

The +CG stroke rate counter, shown with and without an alert counter.

Default yellow alert trigger level: 20 Default red alert trigger level: 100 Record kept: Yes

The positive CG stroke rate counter shows the number of +CG (positive cloud-to-ground) strokes that have been detected in the last minute.

CG strokes can be detected from storms at any range, and have been detected over 600 miles (1000 km) away.

+CG strokes are more common in severe storms.

A new record value is denoted by swapping the colors of the counter and its background.

This counter is not used with the LD-250.

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Negative CG Stroke Rate Counter

The –CG stroke rate counter, shown with and without an alert bar.

Default yellow alert trigger level: 10 Default red alert trigger level: 50 Record kept: Yes

The negative CG stroke rate counter shows the number of -CG (negative cloud-to-ground) strokes that have been detected in the last minute.

CG strokes can be detected from storms at any range, and have been detected over 600 miles (1000 km) away.

-CG strokes are the most common type of CG stroke.

A new record value is denoted by swapping the colors of the counter and its background.

This counter is not used with the LD-250.

The Stroke Rate Change Counters

The default configuration does not display the stroke subtype rate change counters. If you want to view these counters, resize the Rates window by dragging its bottom edge downward. You may need to make the stroke subtype rate change counters visible by selecting them on the Counters menu. Make them visible by choosing the counter on the Counters | Percent changes menu.

These counters, though little used by most, can be used to glean information about how a storm is behaving, particularly if the stroke rates are high enough. The decision to make

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these counters invisible by default was made after realizing that there were already more than enough counters for most users to watch during a storm.

When Lightning/2000 is in flash mode (as opposed to stroke mode), these counters show the rate of change in the number of flashes instead of the number of strokes.

IC Stroke Rate Change Counter

The IC stroke rate change counter, shown with and without an alert bar.

Default yellow alert trigger level: 25 Default red alert trigger level: 50 Record kept: No

The IC stroke rate change counter shows the percentage change in the IC (intercloud/intracloud) stroke rate between one minute ago and now.

For example, if the IC stroke rate one minute ago was 1 and the IC stroke rate now is 3, then this counter would indicate “+200%”.

A sudden change in the IC stroke rate may signal a change in the character of a storm and could indicate behavior that needs to be monitored.

When you specify a trigger level for the red or yellow alert, you are specifying the percentage change that must occur if the IC stroke rate is 100 strokes per minute. The percentage change that is needed for

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alert status at higher stroke rates is somewhat lower, and the percentage change that is needed for alert status at lower stroke rates is higher.

At 1000 strokes per minute, the percentage change required for an alert is one-half the value specified as the trigger level. At 10 strokes per minute, the percentage change required is twice the specified trigger level.

When Lightning/2000 is in flash mode, this counter shows the change in the IC flash rate.

At least 10 IC strokes per minute, both currently and one minute ago, must occur for the yellow or red alert to be triggered.

This counter is not used with the LD-250.

Positive IC Stroke Rate Change Counter

The +IC stroke rate change counter, shown with and without an alert bar.

Default yellow alert trigger level: 25 Default red alert trigger level: 50 Record kept: No

This counter shows the percentage change in the +IC positive intercloud/intracloud) stroke rate between one minute ago and now.

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A sudden change in the +IC stroke rate may signal a change in the character of a storm and could indicate behavior that needs to be monitored.

When you specify a trigger level for the red or yellow alert, you are specifying the percentage change that must occur if the +IC stroke rate is 100 strokes per minute. The percentage change that is needed for alert status at higher stroke rates is somewhat lower, and the percentage change that is needed for alert status at lower stroke rates is higher.

When Lightning/2000 is in flash mode, this counter shows the change in the +IC flash rate.

At least 10 +IC strokes per minute, both currently and one minute ago, must occur for the yellow or red alert to be triggered.

This counter is not used with the LD-250.

Negative IC Stroke Rate Change Counter

The –IC stroke rate change counter, shown with and without an alert bar.

Default yellow alert trigger level: 25 Default red alert trigger level: 50 Record kept: No

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This counter shows the percentage change in the -IC (negative intercloud/intracloud) stroke rate between one minute ago and now.

A sudden change in the -IC stroke rate may signal a change in the character of a storm and could indicate behavior that needs to be monitored.

When you specify a trigger level for the red or yellow alert, you are specifying the percentage change that must occur if the -IC stroke rate is 100 strokes per minute. The percentage change that is needed for alert status at higher stroke rates is somewhat lower, and the percentage change that is needed for alert status at lower stroke rates is higher.

When Lightning/2000 is in flash mode, this counter shows the change in the -IC flash rate.

At least 10 -IC strokes per minute, both currently and one minute ago, must occur for the yellow or red alert to be triggered.

This counter is not used with the LD-250.

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