Designing and Simulation of Low Frequency Cloud to Ground Lightning Receiver for Severe Weather Monitoring Application

Lightning is usually associated with several natural calamities such as thunderstorms, tornadoes, hail storms etc. A low frequency lightning receiver for severe weather monitoring application is designed and simulated to capture magnetic fields radiated by cloud to ground (CG) lightning in the frequency range of 1-30 KHz with a sensitivity of below 0.959 for 4.7 Ω - 1.4 mH impedance antenna. The receiver includes a loop antenna, an input matching transformer and a low noise amplifier (LNA) along with some application specific circuitry. To capture signals below 1 KHz, receiver's sensitivity must be reduced further to maintain the same detection range.