
Real-time lightning map, worldwide - mmastrac
http://www.blitzortung.org/Webpages/index.php?lang=en&page_0=30
======
larcher
Just before seeing this on HN, I randomly came across this article on "dark
lightning" \-- a burst of gamma rays that accompanies the RF burst that
precedes visible lightning.

[http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/04/130424210319.ht...](http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/04/130424210319.htm)

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moreentropy
They also have an overlay for Google maps:

[http://www.lightningmaps.org/realtime](http://www.lightningmaps.org/realtime)

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netcraft
I believe this one also shows you an approximation of the thunder, so if you
are close enough to a strike you can actually tell when you will hear the
thunder. We were playing with it over the weekend and it was surprisingly
accurate!

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hcarvalhoalves
I see they have engineered their own detectors [1], but could cellphones be
used as EMP detectors? They have GPS and antennas after all.

[1]
[http://www.blitzortung.org/Webpages/index.php?lang=en&page=3](http://www.blitzortung.org/Webpages/index.php?lang=en&page=3)

~~~
joezydeco
You just need to find a Maxwell HSN-1000 Nuclear Event Detector. Very handy
part.

[http://www.maxwell.com/products/microelectronics/docs/hsn100...](http://www.maxwell.com/products/microelectronics/docs/hsn1000_rev3.pdf)

~~~
msane
Hah! Cute part. I'm curious - do you just happen to know of this part or have
you been involved with projects that use if?

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unsignedint
Softbank in Japan did release a phone with a Geiger counter, so it's probably
not that far off...

[1]
[http://www.softbank.jp/mobile/product/smartphone/107sh/featu...](http://www.softbank.jp/mobile/product/smartphone/107sh/feature/feature_3/)

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j2kun
Maybe it's the sounds generated by the app, but I like to think that my
furious clicking causes some of the lightning bolts.

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arethuza
Was anyone else who has played the game Defcon a bit disturbed by this?

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DEFCON_%28video_game%29](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DEFCON_%28video_game%29)

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neumann
the range on those detectors is amazing.

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darsham
It's huge. Normally, the curvature of the earth would make it impossible to
detect anything at such distances. But the ionosphere's lower levels act like
a waveguide [1], (and this tells you which frequencies you should listen on to
take advantage of this).

The craziest phenomenon of this kind is whistlers [2]. Lightning strikes can
be heard on radio at a point on the earth exactly symmetrical to the source,
using the equator as plane of symmetry. In fact, the signal bounces around
back and forth between the two points, following a line on the magnetosphere.
The ones closer to the poles have longer paths, and their frequencies can get
spread out over 3-4 seconds as they bounce around.

[1]:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth%E2%80%93ionosphere_wavegu...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth%E2%80%93ionosphere_waveguide)

[2]:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whistler_%28radio%29](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whistler_%28radio%29)

~~~
tim333
Cool stuff. I'm partial to the theory that prior mass extinctions have
involved a meteor strike causing a whistler like effect on the opposite side
of the plane causing volcanic action. eg
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large_igneous_province#Meteori...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large_igneous_province#Meteorite-
induced_formation)

[http://charles_w.tripod.com/dweber/antipode_theory_d.pdf](http://charles_w.tripod.com/dweber/antipode_theory_d.pdf)

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spektom
Hey! This site makes strange sounds, which drove me crazy - I've thought my
hard drive is going to die..

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rondon2
It seems to me that these strikes are happening in clusters at the same time
1000s of miles away. Is this related to radiation from the sun providing the
tipping point?

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RijilV
Worldwide, if you don't count Africa...

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TazeTSchnitzel
They only have so many volunteers, to be fair.

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phreeza
Used this to find webcams of places with thunderstorms rolling in, and found
this here in Switzerland [0], quite fun to watch when you skip through the
history. Day started out lovely but now they are getting hammered.

[0] [http://palacegstaad.roundshot.ch/](http://palacegstaad.roundshot.ch/)

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quarterto
Wow, the Alps appear to be going through the apocalypse.

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gjm11
I don't know how complete it claims to be (in terms of what fraction of
lightning strikes in notionally covered areas it catches), but right now
there's a storm very close to me (Cambridge, UK) and it's displaying a good
fraction, but not all, of the strikes I see and hear.

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cipherzero
How are they getting the data?

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IvyMike
(This is getting a bit pedantic but this is HN so we like to be accurate. And
I learned the word on HN so might as well pass it on.)

Several of the other answers have mentioned "triangulation" but that's not
quite right--that would imply that each listening station measures an angle
towards the lightning source. But they don't--instead, they collect non-
directional data consisting of arrival time stamps.

I believe the word for what they're doing is "trilateration".

Edit: I originally said "multilateration" but it turns out that's not quite
right, either.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triangulation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triangulation)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trilateration](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trilateration)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multilateration](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multilateration)

The More You Know.

~~~
alphapapa
From your own source: "Multilateration is a navigation technique based on the
measurement of the difference in distance to two stations at known locations
that broadcast signals at known times....Multilateration should not be
confused with trilateration, which uses distances or absolute measurements of
time-of-flight from three or more sites"

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exabrial
So do the lines between stations and a strike mean that detector heard the
strike? That's incredible if so... there's a station in California picking up
strikes over Missouri.

~~~
chris_va
From their FAQ, they pick up RF pulses, tag it with a GPS timestamp, and
correlate on a central server.

"A lightning is a pulse not comparable to a broadcast signal on a single
frequency. Such a pulse can be described best as a interference of several
frequencies. Therefore a ferrite rod for lightning detection has to be a wide-
band antenna."

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thekevan
Europe: 1489 strikes

Oceania: 28 strikes

Asia: 0 strikes

South America: 913 strikes

North America: 15,826 strikes!!

~~~
hcarvalhoalves
It's not the reality, it's just reflecting the coverage.

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mturmon
True, of course, but it's also worth remarking that there are huge spatial
differences in lightning frequency due to the specific mechanisms causing
thunderstorms.

I live in the U.S., and you rarely see t-storms on the Pacific coast here
because the nearby Pacific Ocean is cool (due, in turn, to cool water brought
down by the clockwise-turning North Pacific Gyre). But t-storms are very
common in the Midwest and South due to the presence of warm, moist air there.

~~~
thekevan
We get plenty of thunder here in the North East as well, even the occasional
instance of thunder snow. Lightning is much more common in a majority of the
US, excepting much of the lower west coast and southwest.

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greggman
Doesn't work for Japan. I'm in a Thunderstorm right now in Tokyo. Nothing
shows up on the map.

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CmonDev
Add imaginary "for/in USA only" to every title on HN.

~~~
tech-no-logical
not in this case, as blitzortnung is german ;)

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omnibrain
I think this mashed up with other "radars" like flight and ship radar would be
impressive.

~~~
toomuchtodo
Flights (ADS-B):
[http://www.flightradar24.com/60,15/6](http://www.flightradar24.com/60,15/6)

Ship Traffic (AIS):
[https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/](https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/)

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wazari972
cool, I'm looking forward for this evening's thunderstorm to confirm if it's
actually/acurately working :) Average delay appears to be between 3s and 10s
here in Europe, but closer to 3s.

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aarkling
What do the lines mean?

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Gracana
They show the detectors that picked up the strikes. I don't know if a single
detector can determine distance, or if the strike location is triangulated
using angles from multiple detectors.

[edit] Oh, the detectors are quite simple. They use GPS for position and time
and report time-of-arrival of the elctromagnetic pulses. The server then uses
that information to figure out where the strikes occurred.

[http://www.blitzortung.org/Webpages/index.php?lang=en&page=3](http://www.blitzortung.org/Webpages/index.php?lang=en&page=3)

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nraynaud
Northern Texas is just being pounded right now.

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late2part
This is so cool!!

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BozeWolf
This is absolutely amazing indeed! I wonder if the maps of blitzortnung
(please change the name! To blitztracker or something.) match with data from
commercial/public weather stations like metox:

[http://meteox.com/h.aspx?r=&jaar=-3&soort=loop1uur&lightning...](http://meteox.com/h.aspx?r=&jaar=-3&soort=loop1uur&lightning=1)

Hard to compare as blitzortnung is realtime. Hmm.

~~~
danparsonson
re: the name - unsure if you realise or not, but 'blitzortung' is German for
"lightning location (or locating)" :-)

~~~
BozeWolf
Yes, I realise that. I live in the Netherlands; which means I have had german
language lessons at secondary school.

I came up with blitztracker because everybody knows the word blitz and the
word tracker. Easier to write and still keeps the german touch :-)

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Bangladesh1
Nice map

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rikkus
Worldwide, but you link to the US page?

