2019 IEEE International Conference on Signals and Systems (ICSigSys)
Development of Lightning Detector System Using
Multistation Method
Sulkhi(1), Sastra Kusuma Wijaya(2a), Syamsu Rosid(3), Mohamad Ma’ruf Bada(4)
(1,2,3)
Departement of Physics, Faculty of Mathematic and Sciences, Universitas Indonesia Depok 16424, Indonesia
(4)
Meteorological, Climatological, and Geophysical Agency
(1)
sulkhi@sci.ui.ac.id, skwijaya@sci.ui.ac.id, (3) syamsu.rosid@ui.ac.id, (4) moh.marufbada@gmail.com
(2)
(a)
Corresponding Author
Abstract— Lightning is an electrification event that occurs
due to the release of high-voltage induction loads from the
Cumulonimbus (Cb) cloud. Induction load may occur between
cloud to cloud, between clouds to the ground, between clouds to
the air and lightning within the cloud (intracloud). The process
of lightning to strike the ground constantly travel through the
shortest distance with the smallest electrical resistance.
Lightning strikes may cause serious impacts such as the damage
to electronic circuits, telecommunications interference and
fatalities. This research aims to create an independent lightning
detection system with a multi-station method that records the
lightning radius detected from several stations to determine the
coordinate point of the lightning. This research has succeeded in
creating a lightning detector with a minimum distance of 1 km
and a maximum distance of 40 km.
Keywords— Lightning detector, multistation, thunder click.
I. INTRODUCTION
Indonesia is located in the equator region with a high
number of lightning events. The potential lightning strikes is
highly dangerous for objects closest to the cloud and causes
various types of breakdown, fatalities, damage to electric
train networks, damage to aircraft, telecommunications
networks, electricity networks, electronic systems and so
forth [1,2]. Lightning strikes may occur directly or indirectly.
Lightning phenomena occur due to a greatly large amount of
loads bounding caused by the differences in load between
clouds and earth [3].
Lightning is the release of high electric currents in the
atmosphere with a distance of several kilometers. The release
of electric current initiated with the separation of positive and
negative loads within the cloud. The process of load
separation induced the positive load to be distributed at the
top of the cloud while the negative load being distributed at
the bottom part. The negative load at the bottom of the cloud
is drawn by the earth's gravity which causes the release of
charge, therefore lightning occurs [4]. Lightning releases
high electric current in a short period of time. It is estimated
that lightning releases an electric current of 80,000 A in one
stroke, whereas the total average power released
simultaneously by lightning in one stroke is around 106 W.
This power release occurs in objects with a short period of
time, namely 0.5 seconds for several strikes [5, 6, 7]
Lightning is a part of the atmospheric dynamics process,
particularly cloud microphysics, therefore it can be used as a
characteristic and identification of weather conditions,
understanding the characteristics of lightning in thunder
clouds may provide an overview of the structure and
development of clouds therefore it can assist extreme weather
analysis [8]. In general, some previous research used single
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stations [9, 10, 11]. Where in fact, the technique of measuring
lightning with multi station is considered as the most accurate
technique in determining the location of lightning strikes.
Therefore, this research use three lightning detectors in order
to obtain a more accurate lightning data.
The technique of measuring lightning with multi station
is considered as the most accurate technique in determining
the location of lightning strikes. One of the widely used multi
station techniques is the Magnetic Direction Finding (MDF)
[12, 13]. Time of Arrival (ToA) method that has been applied
to several lightning location systems in the world, generally
by using the hyperbole formula which is improved by the
numerical method [14, 15], [16].
In this research, the process of determining the location
of lightning strike is when a lightning strike occurs within the
range of multistation sensor system, where each sensor may
accordingly record the radius of the lightning strike. From the
three radius readings by the sensor, the radius reading of each
sensor can be drawn with a circle, where a point of
intersection is obtained from the three radius circles, this is
when the strike occurs.
Indonesia still utilized a foreign manufacturing
instruments for their lightning detection systems, therefore
understanding the working principles, maintenance and
improvement of lightning detection systems is not optimal.
By using commercially available components with more
economical prices, a more efficient, independent lightning
detectors are expected to be produced.
II. LIGHTNING DETECTION MULTISTATION SYSTEM
The working principle of the multistation sensor system
in obtaining lightning coordinate points is similar to the three-
circle heavyline graphical method to determine the
earthquake epicenter. The three-circle heavy line graphical
method uses P and S wave arrival data from several recording
stations, with at least three recording stations. For example,
three recording stations S1, S2 and S3, each recording station
is made as the center of the circle with the radius of r1, r2,
and r3 [17]. The epicenter coordinate E is the intersection of
the heavy lines of the three circles shown in Figure 1.
The application of the three-circle center point graphical
method is used to determine the location of lightning strike
points, when a lightning strike occurs within the range of the
multistation sensor system area (gray area in Figure 2), then
each Thunder Click sensor will record a lightning strike
radius. Of the three radius readings by the sensor, an
intersection point of the three circles are obtained as the
location of the lightning strike.
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2019 IEEE International Conference on Signals and Systems (ICSigSys)

Fig 3. Thunder Click module

Fig 1. Three-circle heavy line method

Fig 4. Location distance estimation of lightning

Fig 2. Multistation sensor method of lightning detector

III. METHODS
A. System Design
The design of a multistation lightning detection system
consists of several parts, namely analysis of sensor
characteristics, program making, acquisition of the
microcontroller, storage on the SD card, displaying lightning
radius readings on one station on the data logger LCD and PC
through the GUI, determination of lightning coordinates to
the mapping of the lightning.
This system used the Thunder Click Module which is Fig 5. Block Diagram of the system
shown in Figure 3, namely a sensor module to detect
lightning. This module consists of coil antenna in the form of Figure 5 describes the overall workflow of the system with
MA5532 and IC AS3935 lightning sensor. This the functions of each block diagram, which includes:
communication module uses the Serial Peripheral Interface a. Thunder Click sensor module to detect light from
(SPI) with an operating voltage range from 3.3 to 5 volts. lightning.
The thunder click sensor has the ability to detect storm b. ATmega2560 microcontroller embedded in the
distance estimation of up to 40 km. Convertion from binary Arduino Mega2560 board as the center for processing
data to register the distance in kilometers. The register is used the output signal from the sensor.
at 0x07 [5:0] with a value of 000001 = 1 km to the value of c. RTC module as a timer for data provider.
101000 = 40 km as well as the value of 111111 which
indicates that lightning is out of range or located more than d. 20x4 LCD module as a real-time data display of one
40 km. sensor on a datalogger.
The sensor can detect the presence of storm from lightning e. The computer as a display and stores lightning data
activity and provide an estimate of the closest distance from through the GUI. The computer is also a lightning data
the location of the lightning event towards the sensor shown processing media that determines the point of lightning
in Figure 4. strike.

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2019 IEEE International Conference on Signals and Systems (ICSigSys)

f. VDC power supply as a voltage source of sensor

module and data logger hardware.
The working principle of this lightning detection system
is when a lightning strike occurs in the detection area, the
MA5532 coil antenna on the Thunder Click sensor module
captures light waves emitted by lightning to be further
processed by IC AS3935. The output signal from the Thunder
Click sensor module is a digital signal which is then processed
by the Atmega2560 microcontroller and displayed on the LCD
in the radius value. The time data for the occurrence of
lightning is obtained from the RTC module installed on the
microcontroller. The time and distance data of lightning sent
from the logger to the computer via serial communication,
which is then stored and displayed on the computer GUI in the Fig 7. Lightning Detector displays on the web server
form of lightning time and lightning distance radius from the
sensor. Figure 7. show the Graphical User Interface (GUI) of
The design flow of multistation lightning detection lightning detector consists of map data display of the location,
system program explains the processing of data from the time, and distance of the lightning location.
sensor module output until the output data is displayed on the
LCD and sends the data to the computer via a USB serial port. IV. RESULTS AND DISSCUSSION
The system flowchart in the Figure 6 above explains the A. SENSOR RESPONSE TEST
process of starting the hardware initialization program, which The method used for testing the AS3935 Thunder Click
includes the entire hardware used, namely determining the sensor module is by providing stimulants in the form of a
Arduino pin to the lightning sensor module, RTC module, small electric charge bound from electric fire engines and
LCD module, serial and SD card module. If lightning occurs motor spark plugs. The sensor detects stimulants as noise or
within the sensor range (40 km) the sensor captures disturber as shown in Table 1.
electromagnetic waves from lightning. The microcontroller
processes the calculation of the lightning distance from the TABLE 1. THE RESULT OF THE AS3935 THUNDER CLICK SENSOR
sensor and retrieves data of the lightning event from the RTC MODULE TESTING
module. The resulting data is stored on the computer via USB
cable and SD card in the data logger. Lightning coordinate The distance of Sensor response towards stimulants
data is used for mapping the distribution of lightning. Test sensor to the
Electric engine Spark plugs
stimulants (cm)
1 5 Disturber Disturber
2 10 Disturber Disturber
3 15 Not detected Disturber
4 20 Not detected Not detected
5 25 Not detected Not detected
6 30 Not detected Not detected

B. TESTING THE LIGHTNING DETECTOR SYSTEM

The test is carried out to determine the overall working
system towards the lightning. The lightning detection system
testing is carried out by placing three sensors in different
locations.
• Lokation 1 (LD pondok Betung) in the Jl. Pandan No.2,
Kelurahan Pondok Betung, Kecamatan Pondok Aren,
Kota Tangerang Selatan
• Lokation 2 (LD Depok) in the Perumahan Pondok tirta
mandala blok A1 no 18, Cilodong, Depok.
• Lokation 3 (LD Bekasi) in the Perumahan Graha
Cibubur view blok Sentani no. E17, Jatisampurna,
Bekasi.

Fig 6. System Programming Flow chart

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2019 IEEE International Conference on Signals and Systems (ICSigSys)

TABLE 4. LIGHTNING DETECTED BY SENSOR IN DEPOK

LD in Depok
Event R
Status Time
(km)
… … … …
… … … …
Lightning
1 14 25/01/2019 15:56:50
Detected
Lightning
2 29 25/01/2019 15:58:40
Detected
Lightning
3 14 25/01/2019 15:55:31
Detected
Fig 8. Location of Light Detector Testing
… … … …
… … … …
The testing method of the lightning detection system is
to set the three sensors in different places to form a triangle,
therefore it is expected that this system can reach the TABLE 5. RESULTS OF CALCULATION OF LIGHTNING
COORDINATE POINT
maximum detection area. System testing is carried out on 25
January 2019, at 3:00 p.m. The test results has successfully
detected the occurrence of lightning as shown in Table 2, 3, Event Lightning Coordinate
4, and 5.
1 -6.521 106.84733
TABLE 2. LIGHTNING DETECTED BY SENSOR IN PONDOK 2 -6.412 106.6932
BETUNG 3 -6.487 106.7474

LD in Pondok Betung The results of the lightning radius detection of the three
Event R sensors is then collected to calculate the lightning coordinate
Status Time points shown in Table 5. The visualization of coordinate point
(km)
… … … … of the lightning events at each location of the lightning event
detected by the sensors are shown in Figures 9, 10 and 11.
… … … …
Lightning
1 31 25/01/2019 15:56:20
Detected
Lightning
2 20 25/01/2019 15:58:43
Detected
Lightning
3 24 25/01/2019 16:55:25
Detected
… … … …
… … … …

TABLE 3. LIGHTNING DETECTED BY SENSOR IN BEKASI

LD in Bekasi
Fig 9. Lightning coordinate of the 1st event
Event R
Status Time
(km)
… … … …
… … … …
Lightning
1 22 25/01/2019 15:56:49
Detected
Lightning
2 21 25/01/2019 15:58:39
Detected
Lightning
3 25 25/01/2019 16:55:31
Detected
… … … …
… … … …

Fig 10. Lightning coordinate of the 2nd event

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2019 IEEE International Conference on Signals and Systems (ICSigSys)
Fig 11. Lightning coordinate of the 3rd event
Fig 12. Comparison of lightning detector Boltek2000 with designated
LD
The observations of coordinates of the lightning event
were compared with the results of lightning sensor readings
from the Class I Geophysical Station Tangerang, namely the
Boltek 2000 Lightning Detector using .kml data files. Figure
12 presents a comparison regarding the location of the second
lightning strike instrument, the Boltek 2000 Lightning
Detector of the lightning point is indicated by a red crossed
white box, and the designated Lightning Detector is marked
with a lightning icon. The results of the comparison indicated
that there are 2 out of 3 lightning events at the same
coordinates. Determining the location of lightning using the
multistation method is more accurate than siglestation.
V. CONCLUSION
The designated lightning detector device can be used to
detect lightning with lightning distance parameters from the
tool, the date and time of lightning events, and system-
readable noise. This tool can detect lightning with a minimum
distance of 1 km and a maximum distance of 40 km. Lightning
data identified is displayed in real time on the 20x4 LCD and
GUI application on the computer. Lightning data detected can
be stored on a computer with .xlsx format through the MySQL
database.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The research was supported by the grant of PITTA - B
number NKB-0666/UN2.R3.1/HKP.05.00/2019 (Publikasi
Internasional Terindeks untuk Tugas Akhir Mahasiswa) of
Universitas Indonesia, 2019. We would like to acknowledge
the Centre for State College of Meteorology, Climatology
and Geophysics of BMKG for supporting the hardware,
quipments and database.
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