A compact, integrated lightning detecting system (ILD) capable of recording the electrical fields, magnetic fields, point discharge currents and light radiance due to lightning has been developed and tested in field. The ILD includes 10 measurement channels: 1 for the vertical electric fields, 3 for the magnetic fields in three-dimension, 4 for the light radiance in four-direction, 1 for the point/corona discharge currents, and 1 for general purpose use. The vertical electrical fields are measured using a flat-plate antenna technique with a bandwidth of 100 Hz to 3.5 MHz. The probe for the 3-dimensional magnetic field measurement consists of 3 loop antennas oriented in three orthogonal space directions with a bandwidth of about 100 Hz to 600 kHz. Four silicon photo-detectors (flat response bandwidth: 0.45~0.95μm) oriented in four horizontal directions are used to measure the light irradiance of the lightning. The channel for the point discharge currents can sense a current from 10μA up to 1000μA. The one for the general purpose use is designed to detect the response of various sorts of communicational antennas to lightning. All the 10 outputs are digitized and recorded on a multiple-channel recorder at a sampling rate of 10MSamples/s, a value resolution of 12-bit and a record length of 8MSamples per channel per event. The system is compact in size and easy to be setup outdoor to track lightning activity under whole-weather conditions. The data collected by this system can be used in the study of a wide range of lightning phenomena.
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