Computation of lightning electromagnetic pulses using the constrained interpolation profile method

• The CIP method has been first applied to analyzing lightning electromagnetic pulses (LEMPs).
• It has been shown that the CIP computation is more stable than the corresponding FDTD computation.
• A new engineering model of the lightning return stroke has been proposed.
• LEMP waveforms computed with the CIP method for the proposed return-stroke model agree with the corresponding measured one.

In this paper, a numerical procedure for computing electric and magnetic fields in a three-dimensional space using the constrained interpolation profile (CIP) method is presented. Then, this method is applied to computing electric and magnetic fields, which are generated by a current wave propagating upward along a vertical lightning return-stroke channel. The lightning return-stroke channel is modeled by a phased-current-source array. The spatial and temporal distribution of the lightning return-stroke channel or phase-current-source array is represented by a new simple mathematical function of height, time and channel-base current.