A single-station lightning location system designed and implemented based on Raspberry Pi

Precise location of lightning channel is a prerequisite for correctly understanding the occurrence, development, and physical process of lightning channel discharge. In the process of lightning channel location and reconstruction, acquiring thunder signal and then calculating the location result is an effective way to achieve this goal. So it is of great significance to establish a lightning location system which integrates thunder signal acquisition, signal processing, and thunder source location, while providing streamlined operations and visualization effects. This paper utilizes Multiple Signal Classification Algorithm (MUSIC Algorithm) to locate thunder source, and a small single-station lightning location system controlled by Raspberry Pi is designed. The hardware part mainly includes Raspberry Pi, Data Acquisition Card, Microphone Array and Power Supply Module. The software part mainly includes the realization of the multicard synchronous acquisition and storage function as well as the data analysis function. Among them, the multicard synchronous acquisition and storage function is realized by triggering the rising edge in the acquisition card control Python program, and the data analysis function is developed based on the MATLAB GUI interface. The developed location system realizes data acquisition, signal filtering, time-frequency domain analysis as well as calculation and display of the thunder source location results, in which the azimuth angle and pitch angle of the thunder source can be obtained and shown on the screen. Subsequently, through laboratory tests and actual observation of real lightning activity, the system’s performance was tested. The development trend of the geometric structure of the lightning channel can be roughly seen from the results of the thunder source location. The lightning location system developed in this paper has achieved the expected effect. This work is of great significance for lightning activity observation and the study of the development process of the lightning channel.