Description

IEEE PES Distinguish Lecture Program on “Atmospheric Lightning: With Special Attention to Cloud-to-Ground Flashes” by Prof. Mohd Zainal Abidin Ab Kadir, Professor, Institute of Power Engineering (IPE), Universiti Tenaga Nasional, Malaysia Lightning is an electrical discharge in the atmosphere and typically occurs during thunderstorms. Lightning can be categorised as cloud flashes (intracloud, cloud-to-cloud, cloud-to-air) and cloudto-ground flash. Nearly 75% of lightning discharges are cloud flashes, while 25% are cloud-toground. Although constituting only a quarter of all lightning occurrences, cloud-to-ground lightning is the most destructive of the lightning types and hazardous to human life. Approximately 90% of the cloud-to-ground lightning occurrences have downward negative lightning flashes, while 10% or less have downward positive lightning flashes. The upward discharge occurs only from tall objects that are 100 m or higher or a moderate height structure located on the top of a mountain. This talk will discuss on the issues related to cloud-to-ground flashes, current and on-going research and the way forward from research and standard development perspectives.