How does StormTracker detect lightning?
StormTracker detects the low frequency radio signals produced by lightning’s electrical discharge. This signal is the crackling you hear on an AM radio when thunderstorms are nearby. These signals travel for hundreds of miles and are detected by StormTracker’s antenna.
How does StormTracker know where the lightning is?
StormTracker uses a direction-finding antenna to determine the direction the lightning signal came from. StormTracker’s receiver looks at the signal strength to calculate an approximate distance for the lightning strike. There is additional processing done in software to reduce the effect of strike to strike magnitude variations. Once StormTracker knows the direction and distance of the strike it plots it on the map.