Météorage
Lightning data
for flood monitoring
Marc Bonnet
V.P. International
October, 2011
Agenda
► Company overview
► Lightning data


Lightning phenomenon and detection principles
Lightning data in Poland
► Applications for flood management


Tools
Examples of use in Civil Security applications
2
► A private French Company created in 1987
► A subsidiary of Météo France (since 2001)
►Our Know-how

Operation of the French Lightning Detection Network,

Development of lightning operating systems (CATS) and
application software (Observation),

Production and marketing of lightning services for end-users in
Europe (France, Switzerland, Belgium, Luxembourg, U.K.)

Engineering for Lightning Detection Network

Météorage is granted with the ISO 9001:2008 Quality Standard.
Based in Pau - France
3
What is lightning ?
From Cloud …
… to Electricity
 A transient electrical
discharge
 Typically occurs in
thunderstorms, but
occasionally in
snowstorms, sandstorms,
and volcanoes
 Types of Lightning
•Cloud-to-ground
•Intra-Cloud
 70% of lightning remains in
cloud
 A complete lightning
discharge is known as a
flash
 A flash is composed of
multiple strokes, each one
being producing a charge
transfer to ground
4
Benefits of ground based
lightning detection networks
 National coverage : the full information is available
Optic
Acoustic
anywhere within the territory
 Data Quality: an homogeneous level of quality
 Reliability : the network is supervised and maintained
24h/24 and 7d/7
 Network effect when extending the coverage
Electro- 
magnetic
Lightning information :
 Impact information (date, position, intensity, polarity,
accuracy)
 Statistics from a National Data Base
 Centrally operated and nationally available enduser products:
Electrostatic
 Real time information
 Archived data
 No investment, no maintenance
 Provide a different measure
 A complement to radar, satellite or rain gauges 5
Lightning in Poland
Key points of lightning detection in Poland
► PERUN system (9 sensors) works operationally
from 2002
► Data is archived continuously
► Data is used by synoptic, aviation, power lines
► 2010 upgrade of visualization software
► 2011 network and system upgrade preparations
► System is owned by IMGW
► IMGW has its own service crew maintaining and
administrating the system
Lightning data characteristics
► PERUN system detects cloud-to-ground and
intra-cloud data
► Information about polarity (positive, negative)
and about current intensity in discharge
channel is available
6
Lightning in Poland
►Lightning density map in Poland, for 2010
7
IMGW’s projects for lightning data
► Institute of Meteorology and Water Management National Research Institute
is the largest provider of hydro - meteorological data, products and services
on the Polish market
► IMGW has been developing its data and products for remote sensing of
lightning using PERUN system for 10 years
► Using many years of experience and vast knowledge on meteorology,
IMGW is looking for possibilities of wider use of lightning data in other sectors
of the economy than currently exploited
► The IMGW's current goals are:
 public awareness of the significance of information on lightning data
and possible consequences of lightnings
 development of an early warning system of impending lightning
hazard
 improvement of distribution system of lightning data and warnings
 reach the largest possible number of users
► Currently IMGW plans to cooperate in the development of appropriate tool
to achieve those goals
8
Real time applications
Observation Jobs: An end user software designed to display,
process and analyze lightning events in real time or from
recorded data.
Lightning Alarm: A service designed to warn the end user when a
storm approaches his region and help him apply ad hoc
procedures
Area under surveillance
Display
Message
9
Civil Security applications
Flood crisis management:
-Lightning is an early indicator for heavy rains
-Lightning provides a first level of alarm
-Good correlation with other type of data (radar,…)
Lightning-rain
correlation
Document by Prédict
Montpellier
Forest fire monitoring:
Lightning information allows to prevent
fire extension
Planning for crew management
Site survey planification
Lightning
layer on
customer
GIS
10
Thank you for your attention,
question ?
11