Performance characteristics of the ENTLN evaluated using rocket-triggered lightning data

• Performance characteristics of the Earth Networks Total Lightning Network (ENTLN).
• Triggered-lightning data from 2009–2012 were used as ground-truth.
• 67% of negative cloud-to-ground strokes were detected with new ENTLN processor.
• More than half of the detected strokes were misclassified.
• For new processor, median location error was 760 m.

We have evaluated the performance characteristics of the Earth Networks Total Lightning Network (ENTLN) using, as ground truth, data for 245 negative return strokes and 138 kiloampere-scale (≥1 kA) superimposed pulses in 57 flashes triggered from June 2009 to August 2012 at Camp Blanding, Florida. The performance characteristics were determined both for the ENTLN processor that had been in service at the time of acquiring triggered-lightning data (June 2009 to August 2012) and for the new ENTLN processor, introduced in November 2012. So, evaluation for the new processor simulates ENTLN output as if the new processor were in service from June 2009 to August 2012. For the same ground-truth data set and the same evaluation methodology, different performance characteristics for those two processors were obtained. For the old processor, flash detection efficiency was 77%, stroke detection efficiency was 49%, percentage of misclassified events was 61%, median location error was 631 m, and median absolute current estimation error was 51%. For the new processor, flash detection efficiency was 89%, stroke detection efficiency was 67%, percentage of misclassified events was 54%, median location error was 760 m, and median absolute current estimation error was 19%.