Lightning location and lower-ionospheric height determination from two-station magnetic field measurements

Wide band magnetic direction finding from two stations is used to determine lightning locations and ionospheric height during two nocturnal maritime thunderstorms near Florida. A comparison of calculated lightning locations with radar reflectivity data of the two storms indicates systematic direction-finding errors to be on the order of 1 deg. From the lightning locations and measured arrival times of the first and second sky waves, ionospheric reflecting heights for both sky waves were determined. The effective heights for the first and second sky waves may differ, leading to large errors in single-station determinations of ionospheric height, such as in the method described by Kinzer (1974). The distribution of peak electric fields for the strokes studied is shown to be in reasonable agreement with other determinations, indicating the reliability of the present measurements.