Development of Fast-Timing for a Lightning Measurement Array

The goal of the research is to use a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) within a lightning mapping array (LMA) system to accurately track and map lightning events. This would plot the xyz-position of individual strikes with respect to time. To determine these four unknown parameters the system would use a minimum of four ground-based sensors. The motivation for this research is that LMAs have many applications in both public safety and commercial sectors. The attraction to FPGAs for this task is that they have recently risen in popularity because of their durability, speed, and ability to be re-programmed after installation. The basic hardware of the LMA would use an analog-to-digital converter to convert very-high frequency signals from the sensors to inputs that can be interpreted by the FPGA. If the threshold frequency of a strike it met, the FPGA would signal a GPS to log the timestamp of the strike. Long-term timing accuracy will be aided using a GPS-disciplined oscillator. The software will use AND and OR logic gates to determine if the threshold is met. The current aim of the project is using Vivado to develop prototype code that integrates the hardware and software on a BASYS-3 board.