WU-Ting

WU Ting
Title Assistant Professor
Department Department of Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering
Course Electrical and Electronic Course

Research fields

Lightning may appear to be a very simple type of natural phenomenon. In fact, there are so many discharge processes in lightning that are still not well understood. One lightning flash lasts for only about hundreds of milliseconds, but during such a short period, various discharge processes occur. Most of the processes occur inside thunderclouds, so they cannot be effectively observed by high-speed video cameras. I am now developing a 3D lightning mapping system called FALMA based on the electromagnetic radiation from lightning. FALMA is able to reconstruct lightning channel structures and progression features in 3D. The following figure shows the 3D channel structure of a cloud-to-ground lightning flash observed by FALMA. I am now investigating physical mechanisms of various lightning discharge processes based on the observation of FALMA.

FALMA can also be used for monitoring and forecasting meteorological disasters. First, from the observation of FALMA, we can infer the charge structure in thunderclouds, and from the charge structure we can predict the location of the next lightning strike. Second, it has been found that the types of lightning discharges and lightning channel structures are related with the development of thunderstorms, so it is possible to monitor and predict the development of thunderstorms based on the high-accuracy observation of FALMA. It is expected that the FALMA observation will contribute to the lightning protection techniques of the electric power system and the prediction of severe weather in the future.

3D lightning channel structure observed by the FALMA

Research Keywords

Lightning, Lightning 3D mapping, Lightning protection, Severe weather

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