Tracking Lightning
Big Lightning.jpg
Tracking lightning is done with stations that detect light and sound, from thunder. First, lightning strikes at some area. Three stations are positioned in a triangle. The light from the lightning travels so fast(186,000 miles per second) that all three stations detect it at the same time. All three stations start timers. The sound travels out in a circle(at 700 miles per hour). The three stations record how long the sound took to get to them. Two of the stations sent these numbers to the other, so it has all the numbers in one database. It then finds how far away the lightning struck from each station. Then, the computer triangulates the data, and finds exactly where it struck. In case you had a hard time understanding this, I have made a Flash movie to clarify it.


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Last modified 4/28/03 12:18 PM by elip (history)
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