Aninoquisi Lightning/2000 Software

Lightning/2000™ v6.7.2 contains several important features that will enhance your installation and give you added flexibility:

• You now have the option of seeing the most critical information contained in a single window.  The real-time lightning window contains:
  • The detector activity (a.k.a. signal strength) meters
  • The stroke counter, updated continuously
  • Real-time lightning strokes, plotted on the background map
  • Improved ranging algorithms were developed for this function.
• An expanded built-in help file.
  • More topics.
  • More keywords to make searches more productive.
• You can capture an image of the real-time lightning window periodically.
  • Either a compact JPEG or a high-quality BMP image (or both!) may be saved.
  • You specify how often the image is saved to a file.
  • The file can then be uploaded to a web site using a third-party FTP utility.
  • The captured image doesn’t include the detector activity meters, and the superimposed stroke rate counter is in the upper-left corner of the captured image.

   

• You can capture both the Summary and NOWCast windows to a file.

• A greatly expanded and updated user manual.
  • 50% more pages
  • A vastly improved index

   

• A number of minor improvements and corrections.
  • More alarm sounds to choose from
  • More shapes to choose from for displaying lightning strokes
  • Cosmetic and usability enhancements

   

The latest Lightning/2000™ version contains some features that could use some explaining.

• The new “Reflection rejection” algorithm is now in place.
  • During times of heavy lightning activity, sometimes a stroke can be identified as coming from a direction as much as 180 degrees away from where it’s actually coming from.
  • The reflection rejection logic assumes that the most intense storm is not a reflection.  Any storms at azimuthally locations where a reflection from the strongest storm could occur are tagged as possible reflections.  Other criteria are then used to determine if any possible reflections are actually reflections.  Any storms determined to be reflections are eliminated.
  • The new algorithm will hardly ever eliminate a storm that is not a reflection, however it will sometimes leave reflections in place if it isn’t sure.
  • On the whole, the new algorithm is substantially better than the old one and can be left turned on.
  • There are now 5 levels of reflection rejection:  Off, Low, Medium, High, and Extreme.  The “High” setting is the same as having reflection rejection turned on in previous versions.

   

• The “Range scaling” option allows you to change the way that storms are drawn in the Analysis window.
  • “Nearby” storms are those that are drawn in the red alert color; “regional” storms are those yellow alert storms, and “distant” storms are all the others.
  • Changes made to the range of the storms in the Analysis window eventually cause the strokes in the Real-time lightning window to be drawn in different locations.
  • Changes should show up within 1 minute in the analysis window.
  • After you make a change to the range scaling, it could take up to 30 minutes for the changes to be completely incorporated in the Real-time lightning window.
  • This means that you should take the time to observe what effect the changes you make have had before making any more changes.
  • This option was put in place mainly to allow users with “unusual” antenna placements to have some control over their systems.
  • No matter what settings you use for range scaling, a single-detector system will still not be the equal of having your own radar!
  • These settings affect both the Real-time lightning window and the Analysis window.

   

• Now there is another option on the range scaling dialog box — “nearby storms link factor”.
  • By decreasing this number, you will cause storms that are close to each other in azimuth to be less strongly linked in range.
  • The range of a storm is tied to those storms that are in the same general direction.  This works well if there is an organized line of storms approaching.
  • If the thunderstorm activity is widely scattered however, you may need to cause storms to be less strongly linked together.  This way a nearby storm will tend not to cause other storms that are in a similar direction to be “sucked in” towards the center of the display.
  • In general, the less organized (i.e. the more scattered) the thunderstorm activity, the lower the “link” factor should be.  For typical summer popup thunderstorms, a link factor of 50% or lower is appropriate.
  • For well-organized lines of storms, a link factor of 50%-100% should be used.
  • This “link” factor affects only the strokes drawn in the Real-time lightning window, NOT the Analysis window.