On the retrieval of lightning radio sources from time‐of‐arrival data

We examine the problem of retrieving three‐dimensional lightning locations from radio frequency time‐of‐arrival (TOA) measurements. Arbitrary antenna locations are considered. By judiciously differencing measurements that are related to the location of the antennas and their excitation times, the problem is converted from the initial spherical nonlinear form to a system of linear equations. In the linear formalism, the source location and time‐of‐occurrence is viewed geometrically as an intersection of hyperplanes in the four‐dimensional Minkowski space ( x, y, z, t ). The linear equations are solved to obtain explicit analytic expressions for the location and time variables. Retrieval errors are not interpreted with conventional Geometrical Dilution of Precision (GDOP) arguments as discussed by Holmes and Reedy [1951], but with more recent inversion analyses considered by Twomey [1977]. Measurement errors are propagated analytically so that the specific effect of these errors on the solution is clarified. The sensitivity of the solution on the number of antennas used, antenna network geometry, source position, and measurement differencing schemes are discussed in terms of the eigenvalues of the linear system.