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NexStorm Lite User Manual

1. TRAC Report colors and intensities Color Rate min Classification Green 1 10 Weak Yellow 11 49 Moderate Red 50 124 Strong Orange gt 125 Severe Table 4 Flip tag button The Flip tag button is used if you want to change the position of where the ident tag is displayed by pressing this button the position of the tag will toggle between upper left and lower right corner of a TRAC target Tags can also be positioned at the upper right or lower left if the target is close to the edge of the map display where it would otherwise disappear from view or be clipped In those cases pressing the Flip tag button will toggle between the currently used positions Note that this button is available both in the TRAC Report dialog and through the On map ident settings under the TRAC settings tab For additional configurable TRAC settings refer to the Configuration dialog section TRAC settings KS Note If you are using the Boltek LD 250 detector classification of stroke type and polarity is not available and cannot be shown in the TRAC report Because of this the On map ident tag will show a star in place of the polarity sign Edition 5 L1 3007 0902 2007 Astrogenic Systems Table of Contents Page 47 Lightning Detection Software Version 1 0 SEGMENTED RANGING CORRECTION KERNEL In contrast to the non linear General ranging correction that adjusts ranging of strikes for all directions the Segmented ranging correction allows yo
2. Version 1 0 USER MANUAL Photo credit Relko Dimitrijevic Astrogenic Systems O2005 ASTROGENIC s TE ms Lightning Detection Software Version 1 0 TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS coi tea iris 2 INTRODUC TOON DEEN 5 TERMS AND NOTATIONS USED IN THIS MANUALLI ssassssassnasasasaaasssanaassssnsssassasssssasssssanas 6 TEMS a A oc y D war 6 N tations erana A D aera 6 NEXSTORM LITE DIRECTORY STRUCTURE sssassasaasasaaanaaanaaaasaaaananaaaaanaasasaaanaasanas 7 ROO Staind A e ai ral id id 7 Files Su EE 7 WINDOWS VISTA ei EEN 8 NEXSTORM LITE MAIN WINDOWN ssssssssssnaaaasanasaaaassaanasaaassaaasssasssssssssasssssasssssssassssnass 9 ACUM Fame A A E 9 System E EE 9 Statistics frames A A aa Ttika Qe basu ass 9 NEXSTORM LITE AND BOLTEK LD 250 sssassssaasassasaasaasaassassasasaasssssassssassssssssassssssssssssssssss 11 NEXSTORM LITE MENU SYSTEHMN sssssssssasaanaaasaaaasasaaassssasassassssassssassssasssssssssssssssssssssssana 13 Ment NexSHOrtfluu ia nan ati she a a muyuyta A ele a kuy A ieee 13 Elei BEE 13 l t HEEN 14 TRAC REDOM ii A a A EE u pusha 15 segmented Ranging Ee ele e EE 15 Ranging adjustments tics rl A N e A 15 Display meu EE 15 ZO id 15 e E 6 TAGS e ela Sasa A anata OM l
3. 47 Flip tag DUON EE 47 SEGMENTED RANGING CORRECTION KERNLEL LA I a s aasssssssssssssssa 48 lun EE 48 LORN Oonan ea 48 Beleg 49 eelere EE 49 Edition 5 L1 3007 0902 2007 Astrogenic Systems Table of Contents Page 4 Lightning Detection Software Version 1 0 INTRODUCTION Congratulations on installing the NexStorm Lite edition NexStorm Lite is a Windows 32 bit multi threaded application utilizing the Microsoft Windows pre emptive multitasking capabilities in the most efficient way While the main thread of execution communicates with the Boltek lightning detector and performs various computations other threads in the application which run in parallel to the main thread will handle things like drawing strike and storm symbols on the map analyze the stroke signal waveshapes or counting strikes Our main goal with NexStorm Lite was to provide the end user with an application that is stable reliable highly accurate in terms of lightning locating accuracy and focused on features that the user will actually need and use Usability presentation and superb accuracy is why NexStorm Lite s big brother NexStorm has become the lightning analysis software of choice for Boltek lightning detector owners around the world For detailed information about the advanced features of NexStorm Standard Edition please see Appendix A Edition 5 L1 3007 0902 2007 Astrogenic Systems Table of Conten
4. D Layer will absorb sky wave signals in certain frequencies during daylight hours The F1 F2 layers commonly referred to as the F layer is in effect reflecting these waves bouncing them back towards earth with minimal attenuation Shortly after the sun sets the D Layer will begin to dissipate and this will allow the higher F layer to reflect those waves that were previously being absorbed by the D Layer Under certain conditions and especially during night time hours lightning signals from very distant thunderstorms can therefore sky hop their way to your antenna by bouncing between the F layer and the ground one or more times This is generally not a problem during the day because the majority of the lightning signals are ground waves the sky waves being effectively absorbed by the D layer Occasionally you may therefore observe more or less well defined storms appearing relatively close to your location while the actual thunderstorm that is generating the lightning is located much farther away often outside the range of the map If you see this phenomenon then the most probable explanation is that the atmospheric conditions are favorable for sky wave propagation The Nighttime ranging upshift can partially or fully compensate the incorrect ranging that occurs with some of these distant thunderstorms but you should not expect it to be accurate all the time The NexStorm ranging formula becomes more error prone at greater distances because of t
5. Leave this setting at Default if you are not sure of which one to use or if you don t have any problems with false strikes Receiver activation Check this checkbox this if you want NexStorm to automatically enable the StormTracker receiver when the program is started See O 2007 Astrogenic Systems Table of Contents Page 29 Lightning Detection Software Version 1 0 System tab The System dialog provides you information about NexStorm memory usage free disk space on the drive where NexStorm is installed and allows you to adjust a few parameters related to the application s performance and behavior Archive maintenance Autoclip If you expect severe weather enable this feature The clipping of archives is used for keeping file sizes of the currently used daily archive to controllable levels With Autoclip enabled the archive will be split into manageable parts sized 4 MB each Enabling this feature will greatly improve performance on all systems once the archive starts growing After a clip is performed the part that was clipped will be renamed with a sequential digit appended to its filename i e 20030425 1 nex 20030425_2 nex and so on The counter data in each archive will be valid up to the point the archive was clipped The daily archive that was last used hence not renamed will contain counter totals for the entire day You can at any time perform an immediate clip on the archive by pressing the Clip now button This will cli
6. Time when the storm was first detected Bng Bearing to storm target Dist Distance to the storm target units are according to the Map graphics configuration Active Time of last recorded activity Intensity Intensity classification also see color of this particular table row can be Weak Moderate Strong Severe Trend Rate per minute trend over the last few minutes can be Undetermined No change Increasing Decreasing Rate m Last recorded strike rate To view the peak strike rate accumulated totals and strike distribution details for a specific storm click on the row of interest in the report table the area below the table will then be populated with additional data EN NexStorm TRAC report aj x Thunderstorm Range Acquisition report _ Fliptag tag E CE TE 16 o5 332 9 121 16 09 leak No change 198 16 09 We No change 2 7 110 16 09 de ak No change 206 16 08 Neak No change rate 44 min ary al o Figure 21 TRAC report dialog with storm W 331 highlighted Edition 5 L1 Gre O 2007 Astrogenic Systems Table of Contents Page 46 Lightning Detection Software Version 1 0 Each row with contents in the TRAC Report dialog table will be colored accordingly to indicate the intensity of a storm similar to the target symbols Contrary to the TRAC target symbols however the report table has the ability to distinguish between strong and severe thunderstorms Table 4 contains details about the color coding
7. Use this feature to zoom the map in or out on your map Edition 5 L1 3007 0902 2007 Astrogenic Systems Table of Contents Page 15 Lightning Detection Software Version 1 0 LD 250 settings This option is only visible if the detector model has been set to LD 250 under the Hardware tab LD 250 settings contains a submenu with the following options Noise beeps Check this option if you want your LD 250 unit to beep when it detects noises Disable heading indicator The heading indicator will point towards the heading that the antenna is facing if a GPS device is connected to the LD 250 Check this option if you want to hide the heading pointer Reset trip meter Resets the internal trip odometer and will restart counting traveled distance from zero Menu Trend graph Increase time scale Shortcut key F1 Increase the trend graph time series interval Decrease time scale Shortcut key F2 Decrease the trend graph time series interval Smooth Shortcut key F3 Enable or disable smoothing Stacked Shortcut key F4 Enable or disable stacked graph mode not available with LD 250 Trend graph settings Shortcut key Ctrl G Open the Data graphics configuration dialog For more information about the graph please refer to the section Type differentiated strike rate trend graph Menu Help Enable Hints also known as Tool tips Check this menu item if you want to be able to get hints on different items and labels that ar
8. above the Open archive button Edition 5 L1 2007 0902 2007 Astrogenic Systems Table of Contents Page 43 Lightning Detection Software Version 1 0 Replaying an archive You can immediately start replaying the archive by clicking on the Play button 4 The replay start time is automatically set to begin replaying from the first recorded event in the archive but since a lone strike or noise early in the morning hours will affect this setting you should initially adjust the start time lightly before the real actions begins To adjust the start and stop times click on the More options button 8 Set the desired start and or stop time and check the checkbox Loop replay if you want NexStorm to keep replaying this archive indefinitely Note that if you are in the middle of replaying an archive and click on the More options button the replay will be halted Use the archive activity graph to pinpoint where in the archive the action can be found and adjust the replay start and stop times accordingly The Rewind button 2 will reset the replay to whatever time you have set the start time to The Stop button 3 will halt the replay until you press Play 4 again Adjust replay speed up or down using buttons 5 and 6 You can see the current replay speed right above the speed setting buttons KS Note Maximum replay speed is 1024x which equates approximately 17 minutes for each passing second while the replay is running You should be a
9. amount of memory you have installed on your system 5 percent is recommended any time your installed RAM is less than 128 MB This setting will affect performance on low end systems if you are running anything slower than a 500 MHz processor you should reduce the buffer allocation to a minimum After you have made adjustments you will need to restart NexStorm for the new settings to take effect Internal memory buffer information holds information about the purging of the memory buffer Every once in a while NexStorm will clean out the buffer of strikes that are older than the maximum persistence setting of 300 minutes As these strikes cannot be displayed anyway there is no need to keep them stored in memory Purging will improve performance by allowing NexStorm to iterate through a smaller amount of records when plotting strikes on the map as compared to if the buffer was not purged You can see at what time the buffer was purged and when the next purge will occur After a purge has been done you should see NexStorm buffer usage decrease a bit the amount will depend on the number of records that were purged Lastly keep a watchful eye on the Disk usage bar This indicator shows you how much space is used on the hard drive unit where NexStorm is installed If the disk starts becoming full the bar will turn yellow to alert you of this At this point you should seriously consider removing unused files to free up disk space NexStorm will not be able t
10. an appropriate position using the Legend position sub menu in the pop up Edition 5 L1 3007 0902 2007 Astrogenic Systems Table of Contents Page 21 TRAC settings tab Lightning Detection Software Version 1 0 Thunderstorm Ranging and Acquisition TRAC for short is a subprocess in NexStorm that computes thunderstorm locations tracks their movement and analyzes trends and characteristics of a storm Details about the TRAC process is located in the section describing the TRAC Report dialog NexStorm configuration options i ioj x Sound setup Alarms Hardware System Ranging Map graphics Data graphics Strike symbols TRAC settings Thunderstorm Ranging Acquisition filter Dot storm targets Ignore all strikes Ignore uncorrelated strikes Close storm activity coupling On map ident Angle dan 20 El Outer boundary om 100 Gi orf j Flip TRAC Target symbol TRAC target Storm intensity Preview persistance Low M Color dx Shape Plot storm targets Ignore uncorrelated strikes Ignore all strikes Edition 5 L1 2007 09 02 Diamond E Dette sl Track release time E min Thickness Linestyle Figure 6 TRAC settings tab Enables or disables plotting of TRAC target symbols on the map A TRAC target is NexStorm s analytical guess on where storms are located Due to the nature of single antenna positioning systems it will not always be correct but
11. category KS Note Due to its long continuing current a positive cloud to ground stroke CG is considered to be one of the most dangerous forms of lightning and is often the cause of lightning initiated fires and human deaths Studies show that many CG strikes originate from the anvil at the top of the Cumulonimbus cloud which is the type of cloud associated with thunderstorms As the cloud tops due to atmospheric conditions generally are lower at higher latitudes the distance between the cloud top and the ground becomes shorter This shortened cloud to ground traveling distance creates more favorable conditions for a CG discharge and is why this type of strike is more likely to occur the farther north or south you are in the world At southern latitudes storms with predominantly CG discharges are likely to be severe with a potential of producing large hail and tornadoes Edition 5 L1 3007 0902 2007 Astrogenic Systems Table of Contents Page 20 Lightning Detection Software Version 1 0 Strike history color codes Color coding strikes by their age is useful for determining which way a storm is moving and to see where the most recent activity is occurring Adjust these settings to your preferences by selecting colors for different ages and by altering the interval breakpoint slider Keep in mind that this feature is in a way dependent on the persistence setting To allow the use of all available color codes your Strike persistence sett
12. length of these two storms varies depending on which ranging adjustment method is used Noise Ranging Assist During nearby thunderstorm activity and where the environment around the detector is free from interfering noise signals a series of noises immediately preceding a valid strike will in most cases indicate that initiating portions of a strike were captured by the detector related intra cloud component stepped leader etc The Boltek detector is capable of detecting these relatively weak electro magnetic signals at close range but determining the direction of such an event can be difficult and they are therefore often classified as noises If such a noise pattern is detected by NexStorm the program will utilize it to produce a better estimation of the distance to a co incidental strike The Noise Ranging Assist has four effect levels where Full is the default setting If you notice that ranging of close storms is too much biased towards center try lowering the Noise Ranging Assist gradually until ranging becomes more accurate The Noise Ranging Assist function is vital for achieving accurate close storm ranging and should only be disabled if you are having serious noise problems with your detector It is imperative that you make sure that your lightning detector is not picking up continuous noises from artificial sources such as electrical equipment If you find that you are unable to use the Noise Ranging Assist feature then this is a good ind
13. mode the alarm sounds are pre programmed and cannot be changed by the user To unassign a sound double click the text box for the sound that you wish to remove See O 2007 Astrogenic Systems Table of Contents Page 25 Lightning Detection Software Version 1 0 You can disable strike and or noise beeps by unchecking the corresponding Enabled alert checkboxes Enabling or disabling alarms and setting the number of times an alarm sound will loop is done through the Alarm dialog described next KS Note Windows 2000 and XP users must install a special device driver in order to use PC speaker sounds Detailed information and installation instructions are available in the NexDrive documentation accompanying the NexStorm software package See O 2007 Astrogenic Systems Table of Contents Page 26 Lightning Detection Software Version 1 0 Alarms tab NexStorm configuration options ioj x Map graphics Data graphics Strike symbols Density plot TRAC settings Sound setup Alarms Hardware System Ranging Close storm Range ikm 30 E Jh Show on map Armed severe storm Strikes min 50 J Showin graph 7 Armed Severe storm cell Strikes min 20 Armed Strike alert sound Inactive For storms outside 400 km range Enabled Alarm looping configuration l H Sound alarm 5 times then pause for 10 seconds Dialog transparency 4 Figure 10 Alarm configuration tab Alarm t
14. the close alarm setting which is adjustable in the Configuration gt Alarms tab dialog The Noises counter will turn yellow if the amount of noises exceeds 20 per minute and no strikes are detected or if the strike to noise ratio exceeds 5 to 1 The latter phenomenon is very common during elevated and nearby lightning activity and could be indicative of frequent intracloud discharges weak electrical activity or mixed component signals that were not well formed hence could not have the directions properly determined Strike type ratios will not be available when the software is used with the Boltek LD 250 model instead GPS relayed data will be shown in real time in such cases where an NMEA compatible GPS has been connected to the LD 250 C Total counters for all classes of strikes close strikes and noises This is a daily counter that will reset at midnight D Totals and percentage ratios for the four different strike categories that NexStorm is able to classify With regular non severe summer storms the positively charged cloud to ground strikes should be in minority with ratios of 0 to 30 percent During winter thunderstorms thundersnow the positively charged strikes can dominate although the cumulative total is likely to be relatively low Tornadic supercells in the mid western continental US have been recorded to contain a large amount of positive CG strikes especially during the dissipation stage E The System frame contains i
15. will in most cases give you a fairly accurate positional estimation of a thunderstorm s geographical location The symbols that are used for displaying TRAC targets are configured using TRAC target symbols settings described below An uncorrelated strike is a strike that TRAC was not able to link to any currently tracked thunderstorm Enable this feature to de clutter the map from sporadic strikes thus making the whole situational analysis more easy to interpret Enabling this feature will prevent any plotting of individual strikes on the map This feature can be used when the only thing of interest is TRAC computed locations of thunderstorms O 2007 Astrogenic Systems Table of Contents Page 22 Lightning Detection Software Version 1 0 Close storm activity coupling This function is critical if you want close storms to be ranged accurately and in a more natural way than would be the case with this feature disabled The activity coupling tells NexStorm to assume that nearby storms positioned within the angle parameter of the closest storm in one direction are parts of the same storm system Thus the range to each target will be adjusted towards the closest TRAC target though only if the more distant targets are within angle In some rare instances the above logic will not apply and this could lead to incorrect ranging in certain directions In the majority of cases however this feature will improve ranging to close storms considerably s
16. APPENDIX A UPGRADING TO NEXSTORM With this Free NexStorm Lite edition which ships with all Boltek StormTracker and LD 250 lightning detectors you get the same reliable and accurate thunderstorm distance ranging and tracking functions that are also available in the standard edition of NexStorm The Lite edition lacks however the advanced Internet publishing and real time data sharing features as well as some additional lightning analysis features which are only available in the standard edition It also does not include any of the extras that are bundled with the standard edition of NexStorm Upgrade to NexStorm standard edition to get the following additional software and features StormVue Java applet for viewing near real time NexStorm lightning data on your web page SPARK Compact Lightning Explorer for viewing NexStorm data on your Java MIDP 2 0 CLDC1 1 mobile phone Automatic in memory screenshot capture Automatic TRAC report text file generation and storage to disk Automatic exporting of the StormVue datafile Automatic exporting of the SPARK CLX datafile Full FTP capabilities for uploading the exported data and screenshots to your web server Full File Copy capabilities for replicating the exported data and screenshots within a LAN Additional 24 12 8 and 4 hours differentiated strike rate graph Full FlashGate functionality which will enable you to join one of our StrikeStar networks and will also allow third party applications
17. Map setup from the main menu or pressing Ctrl M Vector map configuration opens the dialog where you can change the colors of CVM map layers hide or display the different available layers or recenter the CVM map center Accessing the vector map configuration can also be done by pressing Ctrl E GE O 2007 Astrogenic Systems Table of Contents Page 39 Lightning Detection Software Version 1 0 Map graphics and Strike symbols will open the main configuration dialog with the respective tab already selected This is equivalent to pressing Ctrl C and then clicking one of these tabs Legend position allows you to position the strike symbol legend in one of the four corners of the map window Ignore uncorrelated strikes toggles the plotting mode between showing and hiding uncorrelated strikes You can also change this setting in the Configuration dialog TRAC Settings tab Quick zoom pop up menu sis abled 650 nm 1100 km 688 mi 596 nm 1000 km 625 mi 542 nm 900 km 563 mi 488 nm 800 km 500 mi 434 nm 700 km 438 mi 373 nm 600 km 375 mi 325 nm 500 km 313 mi 271 nm 400 km 250 mi 217 nm 300 km 188 mi 163 nm 200 km 125 mi 108 nm 100 km 63 mi 54 nm 50 km 31 mi 27 nm 25 km 16 mi 14 nm min Figure 18 Quick zoom pop up menu Right clicking on the Range label or the adjacent current range indicator label will bring up the Quick zoom pop up menu Select which range to zoom in to by c
18. apply for all sectors if the distance segment is crosslinked with a sector Segmented ranging correction kernel xj Operation Range mi Hegative values will move strikes closer Sector OO0 062 063 124 125 167 196 249 250 312 313 374 375 Link iii A Se ey in A IS ey ee ml o SS o Se a p H IU AI ey s A IS IA e Ue A IS O A A ee A II O ee ee ll e IS II See SL Link v 2x effect boost Figure 22 Linked ranges and sectors in the Segmented ranging correction kernel Edition 5 L1 0070902 O 2007 Astrogenic Systems Table of Contents Page 48 Lightning Detection Software Version 1 0 To fully understand the implementation of this feature it is recommended that you experiment with it by enabling and disabling linking while changing the values After you are done experimenting you can reset the kernel to reset all ranging correction values to zero KS Note Ranging kernel sectors are automatically de rotated which means that you do not have to account for any antenna alignment you have made while calibrating ranging This means that you should modify ranging kernel sectors where storms are actually being shown on the map without having to account for any antenna alignment that was made previously Calibration values One unit of correction is equivalent to approximately one kilometer for the raw component of the strike signal However because TRAC modifies the location of each strike before it is p
19. ar or system tray instead of displaying the main window when started Start on login Enable to have NexStorm start automatically when you logon to your Windows desktop Startup delay period Add a startup delay period if you are experiencing problems with the receiver not connecting properly when Start on login is used These kind of problems can be related to driver misconfiguration or unexpected delays in the driver startup Using a delay period will allow the relevant driver to start up and initialize before NexStorm attempts to access the receiver hardware for the first time Exit Quit the program Edition 5 L1 3007 0902 2007 Astrogenic Systems Table of Contents Page 14 Lightning Detection Software Version 1 0 Menu Options Configuration Shortcut key Ctrl C Open the Configuration dialog This is a tabbed dialog where each tab allows the configuration of a specific part of the application Refer to the Configuration section in this manual for further details TRAC Report Shortcut key Ctrl T TRAC is the NexStorm strike analysis subprocess The TRAC Report dialog will list all detected thunderstorms in a table One line in the table represents one stormcell that has been targeted by the TRAC subprocess In this dialog you also have the option to enable the On map Ident feature On map Ident will attach a tag to each stormcell on the map The tag contains coded information about the nature and behavior of a partic
20. as Oe eee 16 Men Trend graphs EE 16 Increase TIME Stale onrein eee 16 Menu Helpante A eege een 16 Enable e el EE A a 16 Astrogenic Systems WebSItE ooooococccconocaconooaccconanacaccnanenccccnanncccononanoncnaconeconononeconononencccononacec nines 16 Upgrade NexS DR EE 16 SUPDOM TO MUM BE 16 Lee EE 16 Edition 5 L1 2007 09 02 O 2007 Astrogenic Systems Table of Contents Page 2 Lightning Detection Software Version 1 0 Data graphics tab insirita sassa anaia saksa srassnassssakepasana AS ENEAN ENAA ANENA E 19 Strike and noise alert indicator SettiNQS cooooocccccnonccccononancnoncnanconoranancnncnananerccnnnnororanen cn ronca nenas 19 Strike rate trend graph configuration and colors cccccoconccccononnnccconannnnocanenancccnanancn conan nncocanonancccanones 19 System clock Col eaa A passa A A q aaauesss sss 19 Strike Symbol aD e A A id aaa sasata sss pasay 20 Strike symbol CONMPIQUIATION c2sccecceesscceesssnscceeseensceeeseesecseessooesesessnesaesssenscseesssneseeessnseeseseassaees 20 strike history Color CodeS sraa A 21 Sound tai A a Pe asss sasa 25 Alarms OD EE 27 Eleng Y i cit a A O 27 Alarm looping Configuration SettinQ ooocoococoncccconooacaccnnconacicinoneccccnconccacononannococonecaconaoanenocacones 27 ele Te DEE 28 Receiver type and hardware port addreSS ccoooooccccononeccccononnccccnonnnoncnnonanonoranencnr
21. ate hyperlink Menu NexStorm Map setup Shortcut key Ctrl M Open this dialog when you want to assign or unassign maps that are to be used in NexStorm You can assign two Base maps and up to 14 Custom maps one for each view range level of zoom NexStorm supports the proprietary CVM Composite Vector Map scalable vector map format or as an alternative if you want to make your own background maps Windows Bitmap bmp images If you create your own maps you must save the images to BMP format before being able to use them in the software KS Note Before assigning your own maps you will obviously first need to create and scale them Use the accompanying NexMap program to do this See the NexMap documentation for details on how to create maps To load a map click on the left side button with a folder depicted on it To unassign a map click on the red cross button on the right side When a custom map is loaded it will automatically be assigned to the zoom level you currently are in For instance to assign a custom map to the 300 km range first zoom in so that the outermost distance ring displays 300 km use the Insert and Delete buttons for zooming Load a previously prepared and scaled bitmap Repeat this process for each range that you wish to assign a custom map to A base map can be assigned irrespective of which zoom level you have selected Besides this slight difference compared to custom map assignment the map setup proces
22. cannnnrronnrnnoronanonnnnss 28 Antenna al TEE 28 Receiver setings EE 29 Tee DEEN 29 NexStorm VM Usage System status Memory Status and Internal memory buffer 30 Ranging gb EE 32 Nighttime ranging HE d 32 General ranging correcto EE 34 Plot seale adj usim entu uuu unus E saku a eed ea 34 Noise Ranging EE 35 USER INTERFACE POP UP MENUS u u u u u u u u u u u u u u 39 Map pODS UD MENU uy a u uuu unum A Ed ii is 39 Quick ZOOM POP UP menu rrsssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssassssssssssssssssssssssssssssss 40 VECTOR MAP CONFIGURATION I U U U U aaa asss ssssassssssasssas ssasssassssasssasssasas 41 Vector map configuration dialog breakdoWN coooocccccononccccononnnccconannncccanencnncnanonenconconnrcccanenancccnnnnss 42 REPLAY uu m A u usuaus 43 TRACREPOR Ti cle beeen cub ee event deeb cette ees ete tee eden tered eaten cred she bee AEN 45 Thunderstorm Ranging and AcquisitiON omooccoccoconocicocinacaccnaneneccconeneccnoninnococaconecccccconacacic nases 45 Edition 5 L1 2007 0902 2007 Astrogenic Systems Table of Contents Page 3 Lightning Detection Software Version 1 0 TRAC Report colors and intensiti8s ooooooococoooooccooonecocananannnnnconoconcanannenonccnnoccncananenenenerccccccnananes
23. ction system will be capable of tracking thunderstorms at that range Generally ranging of storms becomes increasingly unreliable with increased distance and at ranges over 500 km 300 miles there is no guarantee that any kind of signals produced by lightning can be captured by the Boltek system Edition 5 L1 2007 0502 2007 Astrogenic Systems Table of Contents Page 13 Lightning Detection Software Version 1 0 Clear strikes Clears the map display of all strike symbols that were drawn prior to the current time Replot strikes Replots all strikes between current time and the Persistence limit Replay Shortcut key Ctrl R Opens the archive player dialog that allows you to playback older archives Refer to the Replay section for details on how to use this feature Save settings Shortcut key Ctrl S Will save your current settings and display a confirmation dialog if the save were performed successfully The changes you make in your configuration are saved every time you exit the program you should use Save settings to ensure that the settings are saved immediately after a change or your configuration changes might disappear in case of a power outage or system crash Hide when minimized Enable to place the NexStorm icon in the system tray when the application is minimized Double click on the NexStorm system tray icon to bring back its window to the desktop Start minimized Enable to have NexStorm start minimized to the task b
24. e part of the NexStorm user interface To read a hint after enabling this feature hover your mouse pointer over the item in question Note that not all items have hints attached to them some are considered self explanatory by name and should not require hints for understanding their basic function Astrogenic Systems website Will open Astrogenic Systems website in a new web browser window Upgrade NexStorm Will open a dialog containing information about what additional features you will get when upgrading to the regular NexStorm version Support forum Will open Astrogenic Systems support forum website in a new web browser window About This dialog holds the version number of your NexStorm installation as well as revision numbers of the processing core and control parameters Always include this information when asking for support Edition 5 L1 2007 0902 2007 Astrogenic Systems Table of Contents Page 16 Lightning Detection Software Version 1 0 CONFIGURATION OPTIONS DIALOG This is by far the most content packed dialog in the application In here you will be able to configure most of the configurable features available in the software Open this dialog by pressing Ctrl C through the regular menu system Options gt Configuration or by clicking on one of the labels in the System frame The Configuration dialog is a tabbed dialog under each tab you will find a separate dialog containing configuration options for a specific part of
25. ed graphs in normal mode can turn out to be less useful because the graph may become cluttered and difficult to read Trend graph 30 min n min Figure 15 30 min differentiated smoothed normal mode graph Graphs available in normal mode e Total strike rate Close strike rate e Noise rate optional e CG CG IC and IC rate optional not available with LD 250 DEN O 2007 Astrogenic Systems Table of Contents Page 37 Lightning Detection Software Version 1 0 Stacked mode In contrast to the normal mode graph the stacked mode graph is used to more efficiently present the relationship between strike type specific strike rates Here each graph is plotted so that it represents the aggregate value of its own data set and all of the data sets beneath 0 min 30 min Figure 16 Side by side comparison of a 4 hour stacked graph without left and with right smoothing In stacked mode the topmost graph is the one that will show the total true strike rate To obtain the actual strike rate value for an individual graph you must subtract the strike rate values of all the graphs beneath it Stacked mode is particularly useful for observing changes in polarity and strike type distributions in thunderstorms over time Graphs available in stacked mode e Stacked CG CG IC and IC rate KS Note The stacked graph mode and differentiation is not available with the LD 250 detector To toggle between normal and stack
26. ed mode use the F4 key or select the corresponding option from the Trend graph menu or the Data graphics configuration dialog aos O 2007 Astrogenic Systems Table of Contents Page 38 Lightning Detection Software Version 1 0 USER INTERFACE POP UP MENUS There are two pop up menus available directly under the user interface The first one is accessed by hovering the mouse pointer anywhere over the map window and clicking the right mouse button This menu contains a number of shortcuts to help you configure your map window display and presentation of data The second pop up menu is accessed by right clicking on the Range label or the current range indicator to the right of this label This action will bring up the Quick zoom pop up menu which allows you to select a specific view range instantly instead of having to step through a number of zoom levels using the Insert or Delete keys Map pop up menu EM Colors and Map Azimuth lines Distance rings Distance labels Center cross Close alarm ring Map setup Vector map configuration ctrl E Map graphics Strike symbols Top left Tap right y Bottom left Bottom right Ignore uncorrelated strikes Crit Figure 17 Map pop up menu The first 5 entries in this menu will open a color picker dialog if clicked Use this to change the respective colors of the various map overlay components Map setup will open the map assignment dialog and is equivalent to selecting NexStorm gt
27. enu With the LD 250 it is currently not possible to capture raw signal data as is the case with PCI type detectors This is related to bandwidth limitations inherent in the communications port over which the LD 250 communicates with the PC and subsequently any interface application Because of this limitation which prevents NexStorm from being able to classify stroke types and the fact that LD 250 was designed with GPS support the activity frame strike type distribution table will be substituted by a GPS data information table whenever the software is configured for usage with the LD 250 detector Subsequently in those cases where a NMEA compatible GPS device is connected to the LD 250 NexStorm will display selected GPS parameters in real time Figure 2 shows how the activity frame will look if LD 250 is configured as the detector model under the Configuration gt Hardware tab and with no GPS connected STRIKE NOTSE BEARING 000 Total Strikes Total Moises data Heading Speed Trip 0 0 mi 000 Om Sp Al 0 0 ft Sat Figure 2 LD 250 mode activity frame Heading Shows the current heading in degrees in which the antenna is pointing This information is retrieved from the NMEA GPGGA sentence In addition to this reading NexStorm can optionally draw a rotating heading pointer on the map Speed Shows your current speed in km h miles per hour or knots Information is retrieved from the NMEA GPRMC sentence Trip A tr
28. es require differentiated directional ranging One example of such an circumstance is having large bodies of conductive salt water to the south of your location while land to the north In this particular case storms originating in the south lobe of the detector coverage will in many cases be ranged closer than they actually are Plot scale adjustment This function will change the strike X Y coordinate to map scale ratio Plot scale adjustment is a high level graphics function with immediate effect sliding the plot scale slider back and forth does not affect the ranging algorithms contrary to the General ranging correction and the result can be instantly seen on the map Setting the plot scale adjustment to values above one will move strikes and storms farther from center values less than one will move them closer It is easy to calculate the new distance by simply taking the current distance of a storm or strike and multiplying it with the new Plot scale factor Why two different ranging adjustments that seemingly work the same way Although superficially the General ranging correction and Plot scale adjustment appear to be doing the same thing they do it in different ways yielding slightly different results Each method has its advantages and disadvantages as described below The Plot scale adjustment is instant but will modify the shape of a storm cluster by radially elongating it This problem gets worse the more you scale the range upward
29. ght Savings Time or set NexStorm to replay and loop the archive currently in use i e archive of today Archive activity graph This is a graph that shows you the distribution of activity in an archive that you are about to open It will additionally display the amount of records strikes and noises that the archive contains the distribution between the various types of records and when the first and last events strike or noise were captured In the graph you will be able to see how the strike rate fluctuates during different times of the day and you can use this to easily locate a time of interest to replay specific parts of the archive The graph is activated when the Open archive button 1 is pressed and is populated with data when a valid NexStorm archive in the open file dialog is highlighted Once you open the archive the graph will close You can reopen the graph at any time while in the replay mode by clicking the Toggle archive activity graph button This button toggles the activity graph between visible and hidden Opening an archive for replay Click on button 1 with a folder icon in the replay panel A file dialog will open along the archive activity graph When you highlight an archive that contains some data you should see the archive activity graph becomes populated with information To open this archive click on Open in the open file dialog or double click on the archive file Once the archive is loaded you should see its name
30. he reduced amounts of captured lightning signals but there are also other factors which will influence the performance of the Nighttime ranging upshift feature such as daily and seasonal variations in atmospheric conditions and or surrounding terrain The ranging upshift will activate at sunset and gradually be applied until full effect is reached around 30 minutes after initial activation Similarly after sunrise the upshift effect will be gradually reduced and reach minimum switch off level after around 30 minutes If the latitude longitude and UTC offset are all set correctly the times at which Nighttime ranging upshift activates and deactivates will correlate rather well with the dissipation and formation of the D Layer KS Note The optimal values for Range shift and Boundary will be different for different locations but may also vary for the same location on different days Edition 5 L1 3007 0902 2007 Astrogenic Systems Table of Contents Page 33 Lightning Detection Software Version 1 0 General ranging correction Allows you to adjust how individual strikes should be ranged by NexStorm The General ranging correction is a weighting modifier that is by adjusting it the TRAC sub process will be nudged or biased to range storms towards the direction of the applied adjustment Negative values means that strikes will be ranged closer to the center positive values means strikes will be ranged farther away The 2x effect boos
31. hould press and hold the Ctrl key while simultaneously pressing the S key This particular action will save your configuration settings without the need to explicitly open the NexStorm menu and selecting Save settings Words written in italic are in some cases used for sake of clarity to indicate a configurable function a concept used in the software or a particular menu option Edition 5 L1 3007 0902 2007 Astrogenic Systems Table of Contents Page 6 Lightning Detection Software Version 1 0 NEXSTORM LITE DIRECTORY STRUCTURE This section will briefly explain the organization of NexStorm Lite folders and subfolders and the contents that can be found in each folder The NexStorm Lite installation folder sometimes also referred to as home directory is created by the installation program and the actual location on disk is chosen by the user during the installation process If you the application was installed in the default directory suggested by the installer your NexStorm Lite files will be located in C Program Files Astrogenic NexStormLite The listing below applies to the directory structure found inside the installation folder irrespective of its location on the hard drive Folders ctrparam Control parameter data and core processing variables file filename cpd 0 This file is hot swappable if you receive a newer version of the control parameters file from us you will not need to restart NexStorm Lite to replace the file jus
32. icator that relocating your antenna might be necessary Alternatively you could try to find and eliminate the noise source that is causing your problems KS Note Occasional noise indications of 1 per minute or less frequently does not affect the performance of Noise Ranging Assist Edition 5 L1 3007 09 02 2007 Astrogenic Systems Table of Contents Page 35 Lightning Detection Software Version 1 0 TYPE DIFFERENTIATED STRIKE RATE GRAPH The NexStorm strike rate graph can be configured to display historical strike rate data in several different ways The graph is type differentiated which means that the different strike types can be represented using separate graph plots and persistent which means that the graph data is saved to disk and will persist through software restart Time scale The graph can be configured to display different time intervals ranging from 0 15 minutes and up to 0 120 minutes The graph granularity time resolution and display refresh rate is 20 seconds To change the time scale press F1 to increase or F2 to decrease Strike rate scale The scale which indicates the strike rate is scaled automatically The lowest possible range on the vertical axis is 0 30 strikes per minute The upper bound is infinite Graph smoothing The different graphs can all be smoothed by applying a Laplace 5 pass smoothing algorithm The difference between a smoothed and non smoothed graph is illustrated in fig 13 where identica
33. ill not be uninstalled automatically This is important to know if you at any point want to perform a clean install of NexStorm Lite in which case you will have to manually delete archive and or configuration files from the Virtual Store Edition 5 L1 3507 09 07 2007 Astrogenic Systems Table of Contents Page 8 Lightning Detection Software Version 1 0 NEXSTORM LITE MAIN WINDOW The main window is the part of NexStorm that is always visible to the user when the application is not minimized The largest part of the main window consists of the map area Additionally there are three frames containing various indicators labels and counters Right clicking on your mouse while the mouse pointer is over the map area will bring up a popup menu Using this menu colors of the map overlay components such as distance rings and labels can be adjusted You can also access the Map setup dialog and the Configuration gt Strike symbol dialog that are also accessible through the regular menu system Activity frame The topmost frame in the user interface is called the Activity frame It contains counters strike and noise alert indicators and the last detected strike bearing indicator Portions of this frame will change appearance if LD 250 is configured as the detector type in the NexStorm hardware configuration System frame The midsection frame is called the System frame it reflects certain parts of your NexStorm configuration settings and show
34. imal latitude longitude and UTC standard time offset Once these parameters are set and Enabled is checked the sunrise and sunset times will be displayed in the upper right corner of the panel with Daylight Savings Time DST automatically adjusted for KS Note During replay Daylight Savings Time cannot be computed for the date of the archived data To override the default todays DST state open the Replay setup dialog green arrow in the replay control dialog and select or deselect DST When first opened the DST Override setting will be enabled or disabled depending on if DST is active for the current day Edition 5 L1 007 09 02 2007 Astrogenic Systems Table of Contents Page 32 Lightning Detection Software Version 1 0 Why differentiated night time ranging is useful Lightning detectors such as the Boltek StormTracker and LD 250 are subject to radio signal propagation laws When a lightning strike occurs it will emit an radio signal pulse a wave that will propagate towards the detector antenna both as a ground wave and a sky wave A sky wave is basically a wave that was bounced off the Earth s ionosphere at least once This will enable the wave to propagate much further than it would if it were a ground wave This phenomenon is well known among amateur radio enthusiasts enabling them to communicate across great distances when conditions are favorable The ionosphere consists of several layers called D E F1 and F2 where the
35. ing Map graphics dialog should be matched with the Interval breakpoint in this dialog For instance an interval breakpoint of 10 and a Strike persistence setting of 30 minutes will discard the last three color codes since they are outside the persistence setting time range Y Tip You can decrease the number of color codes used by intentionally adjusting the settings in a way so that the last few colors fall outside of the persistence setting Strikes older than the maximum persistence setting will not be plotted on the map Select a color for a specific interval by clicking on the color boxes to the left of the interval times The topmost color first interval is configured by setting the Old strike color clicking on its color box will not open the color picker dialog The history color coding feature is not discriminating by category it will colorize all strikes equally irrespective of their type or polarity The strike type discrimination is only done on the New strike and Old strike plots until the secondary interval becomes active The Reset history colors button will restore NexStorm s default color coding settings To deactivate the use of history color coding uncheck the checkbox named Color coding enabled On map legend Check this option if you want to superimpose a legend on the map that is reflecting your Strike Symbols setting To change which corner of the map the legend will be rendered in right click on the map and select
36. ip odometer showing the amount of distance traveled in kilometers statue miles or nautical miles depending on the distance unit setting This odometer is application internal and can be reset by accessing the LD 250 specific menu LD 250 settings under Options See O 2007 Astrogenic Systems Table of Contents Page 11 Lightning Detection Software Version 1 0 Alt Indicates the altitude GPGGA in either feet or meters depending on the distance units setting Sat shows how many satellites are currently used by the GPS for positioning Less than 3 satellites indicates an unreliable GPS fix and will make this indicator turn yellow If no satellites are being received this indicator will indicate it with the text None colored yellow The satellites in view parameter is parsed from the GPGGA sentence LD 250 SPS data Heading Speed E 5 1 S 56 km th Figure 3 Stormchase during NexStorm 1 1 field tests using a Boltek LD 250 connected to a Garmin GPS V See O 2007 Astrogenic Systems Table of Contents Page 12 Lightning Detection Software Version 1 0 NEXSTORM LITE MENU SYSTEM The menu system is used for navigating between different locations in a program Using the menu you can active or deactivate functions or open hidden dialogs that lets you configure how NexStorm operates This section walks you through the entire NexStorm menu system To see more in depth explanations on certain options in the configuration click on the appropri
37. ise graph O Rate scale digits MM 5 graph Laplace smooth Mi Severe alarm marker CG graph SHEI alarm trigger vale D c graph C Total graph EE 1C graph Iw Differentiate always System clock E System clock color Dialog transparency x Close Figure 5 Configuration options for the graph and system clock colors Strike and noise alert indicator settings Alert indicators lit up duration will adjusts how long time in milliseconds the strike and noise indicators will be lit when either is detected by the program Move the slider tab back and forth to adjust this time Strike rate trend graph configuration and colors Allows you to configure the different strike rate graph colors To change a color click on one of the color boxes A color picker dialog will open and allow you to change the default color to one of your choice The selectable options are described in detail in the Type differentiated strike rate trend graph section System clock color Allows you to change the default color of the main window date time to a color of your choice DEN O 2007 Astrogenic Systems Table of Contents Page 19 Lightning Detection Software Version 1 0 Strike symbols tab Use this dialog to configure the symbol generator assigning strike symbols to be used for plotting different categories of strikes on the map NexStorm can discriminate between two types of lightning cloud to ground CG or intracloud in cloud stro
38. ition Thunderstorm Ranging and Acquisition or TRAC for short is a sub process in NexStorm that contains all the logic behind computing where thunderstorms are located and analyzing their characteristics TRAC can also produce a text based report based on its findings to show you details about individual storms The TRAC related On map ident feature uses TRAC data to display important information about a thunderstorm in coded format directly on the map If the On map dent is enabled each storm will have a tag attached to it this tag will show you the storm s identification number its polarity current strike rate and the strike rate trend over the last few minutes When TRAC has detected what it believes to be a structured thunderstorm system it will start tracking it until the storm dissipates or the tracking could not be maintained for other reasons Targets A tracked thunderstorm is called a target and the location of each target will be drawn on the map if the Plot TRAC targets feature is enabled see Configuration Targets can have different colors depending on the intensity of the storm being tracked The symbols and colors that are used for drawing targets on the map are to some degree user configurable The intensity level and the corresponding default color setting are described in table 3 TRAC Target colors and intensities Color Strike rate min Classification If two targets collide they will merge The least active target wil
39. kes IC Additional filtering is done based on the polarity of the stroke and can be either positive or negative The NexStorm symbol generator allows you to visually discriminate between these four distinctive types of strikes when they are plotted on the map Strike symbol configuration To change a strike symbol for a specific type of strike you must first select which type you want to change You do this by selecting the strike age New Strike or Old strike button and the strike classification radionbuttons CG IC CG IC Each combination can be configured to have a unique symbol setting Note that the default configuration does not discriminate between the four possible stroke types After selecting which strike you want to change you need to assign a symbol for it you can browse through all available symbols by clicking on the left and right buttons located at the bottom of the symbol preview area To change the size of symbols press the up or down buttons located to the right of the symbol preview area If you need to assign a different color to a particular type of strike click on the Color button to open the color picker dialog The Equalize button is used to neutralize the visual discrimination of strikes by setting all symbols to be equal as the currently selected strike category This means that if you press this button all categories of strikes will use the same symbols for New strike and Old strike as the currently selected
40. l in that case become a part of the more active one The 20 Green 1 10 Weak minutes trend parameter will be reset at that point to allow for Yellow 11 49 Moderate recalculation of the new storm s actual intensity level Strikes Red gt 50 Strong or Severe that fall near a target are instantly coupled with it these strikes are called correlated Strikes that fall too far away from any target are classified as uncorrelated Table 3 KS Note Storm severity classification is a function of the inverse distance to a thunderstorm so the figures shown in tables 3 and 4 will not apply for storms located at a farther distance The figures presented here are based on ideal storms that are within 150 km range 93 miles The more distant a storm is the lower the strike rate will be required for upgrading its severity classification TRAC Report TRAC will periodically generate a report based on current activity This report can be viewed in tabular format from within NexStorm by opening the TRAC Report dialog Ctrl T Edition 5 L1 3007 0902 2007 Astrogenic Systems Table of Contents Page 45 Lightning Detection Software Version 1 0 TRAC Report dialog While a thunderstorm is being tracked it is also being continuously analyzed You can view the results of the real time analysis in the TRAC Report table The table contains the following data fields Ident Identification code a letter followed by a dash and one or more digits Detected
41. l graph data is shown with and without smoothing applied A side by side comparison of an equivalent stacked graph is shown in fig 16 Figure 13 Non smoothed black and smoothed red graph comparison As is evident in fig 13 graph peaks will be smoothed out so that the peak strike rate shown in the graph will in most cases be lower than indicated by the numerical peak strike rate indicator Smoothing is used to improve the visualization of strike rate data but will on the other hand make the graph less accurate If accuracy is important then using smoothing should be avoided To toggle graph smoothing press the F3 key or select the corresponding option from the Trend graph menu or the Data graphics configuration dialog Edition 5 L1 007 0002 O 2007 Astrogenic Systems Table of Contents Page 36 Lightning Detection Software Version 1 0 Graph modes The graph has two different presentation modes which makes it possible to display strike rate data in slightly different ways Normal mode In normal mode each graph will be plotted so that the strike rate value correctly matches the scale indicator Trend graph 120 min A aal La d ha d in Mh sa Ier V d d DR NZ Figure 14 120 min normal mode graph showing total and close strike rates and noise rate Similarly to a stacked mode graph see below a normal mode graph also has the capability to show differentiated strike rate data For longer time series differentiat
42. le of Contents Page 7 Lightning Detection Software Version 1 0 Windows Vista notes Unlike previous Microsoft Windows versions Vista s new account management features will not allow software to write files to the Program Files folder unless a user with administrator privileges has explicitly configured the software to run with administrator privileges Because NexStorm Lite will need to store certain configuration settings and lightning data archives in its installation folder it is recommended that you configure the software to run with administrator privileges If you choose to not let NexStorm Lite run with administrator privileges Windows Vista will by default redirect all NexStorm Lite file writes to the so called Virtual Store Consequently all files that NexStorm Lite produces will be found under the following path lt DRIVE gt Users lt USERNAME gt AppData Local VirtualStore Program Files Astrogenic NexStorm Lite Above DRIVE and USERNAME are specific to your system and user acccount In order to keep all NexStorm Lite related files in one place we recommended that you allow NexStorm Lite to run with administrator privileges For details on how to configure software to permanently run with administrator privileges please see Windows Vista Help KS Note If you opt to let Windows Vista redirect NexStorm Lite s files to the Virtual Store and later want to uninstall the software the archives and other data that was redirected w
43. licking one of the available ranges in this menu The currently selected range will be checked as can be seen in the above screenshot Edition 5 L1 007 0002 O 2007 Astrogenic Systems Table of Contents Page 40 Lightning Detection Software Version 1 0 VECTOR MAP CONFIGURATION KS Note This section of the manual only applies if you have purchased and installed a Composite Vector Map To obtain a custom CVM map for you location please visit our website or contact us by email Later NexStorm versions support a new vector map format called CVM This section describes the new Vector map configuration dialog that is only accessible when a CVM map has been loaded The procedure for assigning a CVM map to NexStorm is exactly the same as for the regular BMP format maps Once assigned pressing Ctrl E or selecting Vector map configuration from the map window pop up menu click the right mouse button while the mouse pointer is hovering over the map will bring up the dialog shown in figure 10 Ga vector map configuration gt gt Layer EL Land Type Polygon I Map alignment d Line width n ag FE Outline a Y offset 0 00 Fill O visible e cl Map background BW Save color settings Close Figure 19 Vector map configuration dialog The CVM map is layered this means that there are several separate geographical data objects all packed in the CVM file for instance country borders state boundaries and cou
44. lotted the unit to distance relationship will always be altered to some degree either upwards or downwards Negative values blue color will bring strikes closer towards center positive values red color will push strikes out towards edge of the map Enabling 2x effect boost will double the power of each unit of measurement The actual ranging kernel value will not change only its power How to calibrate The recommended procedure when calibrating ranging is to first adjust the General ranging correction so that NexStorm ranges strikes as accurately as possible then use the Segmented ranging for additional corrections required for the ranging to become optimal Remember to have a great deal of patience when calibrating this is not something you can expect to complete in a couple of days It is of little use to calibrate on single sporadic strikes or very weak storms NexStorm accuracy normally increases with increased lightning activity so your best bet is to calibrate on storms that individually have strike rates of 5 strikes per minute or above To verify the new calibration settings you must allow the program to process several strikes before any changes will become evident Calibrating ranging on real time storms can therefore be time consuming so the preferred way of doing this is by using the Replay feature Edition 5 L1 3007 0902 2007 Astrogenic Systems Table of Contents Page 49 Lightning Detection Software Version 1 0
45. nd file copy features will be blocked from operating The screenshot feature will remain available in either real time or replay mode and the real time capturing of strikes will keep running in the background until you exit replay Automatic TRAC Report generation will be disabled during replay you can however at any time during replay press the Save button in the TRAC Report dialog to generate a report based on the replayed data The real time TRAC data is kept in memory until you exit replay The replay panel Open the panel through the menu NexStorm gt Replay or use shortcut keys Ctrl R Note that NexStorm will not enter replay mode until you actually load an archive just opening the replay panel has no visible effect on the real time capture You will be able to see the switch between modes by looking at the NexStorm system clock a capital R is always visible after the time when the replay mode is made active There are 8 buttons on the replay panel that are used for immediate replay control The buttons are from left to right in B figure 11 gu gt Archive replay STOP 20030523 nex Speed 6458 Open archive Rewind to start time Sl ajaj gt af ol el el sep Play Figure 20 Replay panel Increase replay speed Decrease replay speed Toggle archive activity graph More options O ON ON Button 8 More options will open separate dialog where you can configure looping replay start and stop times and switch Dayli
46. nformation about the configuration state of your NexStorm The labels in the System frame are clickable and will open various configuration dialogs depending on which label was clicked Right clicking on the Range label or the currently selected range indicator label will bring up the Quick Zoom which lets you select a specific view range F Uptime indicator and Peak rate indicator The uptime shows how many hours and minutes the application has been running since it was started It is only reset when NexStorm is restarted The Peak rate indicates the highest strike rate that has occurred during application uptime or if the application has been running for over 24 hours within the current day The Peak time indicates at which time the peak strike rate occurred The Peak rate counter is reset at midnight every day or if you exit the application G The strike rate trend graph shows lightning activity for a set period of time For more information about the graph please see the Strike rate graph section 2007 Astrogenic Systems Table of Contents Page 10 Lightning Detection Software Version 1 0 NEXSTORM LITE AND BOLTEK LD 250 When NexStorm is used with the portable Boltek LD 250 detector model the activity frame will change appearance so that it displays GPS data relayed by the LD 250 instead of the strike type distribution table When run in LD 250 mode one additional LD 250 specific menu item will be available under the Options m
47. ntification number F 4932 dominating CG strike polarity is negative last recorded Figure 8 On map ident examples strike rate per minute 4 the strike rate per minute is increasing C Same as B a few minutes later strike rate is now 12 strikes per minute and decreasing TRAC Target symbols Sets which symbols should be used for displaying TRAC Color Strike rate min Classification targets on the map Targets are drawn in three colors where IW Green 1 10 Weak each color denotes a storm s intensity based on its strike rate Yellow 11 49 Moderate Red gt 50 Strong or Severe Table 1 Current version of NexStorm has three target symbols that you can choose from Symbol selection is linked meaning that the symbol you select will be used for all storm target plots irrespective of their intensity You can alter the default colors that are used for storms in each intensity class and also modify the width of the lines that the symbols are drawn with The dash dot and dotted line types are only available when the line width is set to 1 pixel TRAC Target persistence This setting tells NexStorm how long time it should keep monitoring a quiet storm for additional activity Once the configured period of time expires the storm is considered dissipated and the program will stop tracking it You can set the release time to anywhere between 5 and 20 minutes with the default being somewhere in between Edition 5 L1 2007 0502 2007 A
48. nty boundaries A layer can be either polygon based or polyline based and each layer has its own color settings Polygon based layers have separate outline and filling colors while a polyline layer consists only of lines so there is only one color that can be altered Normally country boundaries are polygon based while highways state and county boundaries are polyline based The Type label in the Vector map configuration dialog will indicate which type the currently selected layer belongs to The following page describes each of the available vector map configuration options aos O 2007 Astrogenic Systems Table of Contents Page 41 Lightning Detection Software Version 1 0 Vector map configuration dialog breakdown Layer Allows you to select which of the available layer you want to work on Line width Sets the outlining line thickness for the layer that is currently bing shown Outline The outline color used for this layer Click inside the color box to change the color Fill The fill color used for this layer If the layer type is polyline the fill color box will be dashed indicating there is no color that can be modified Visible Check this option if you want the currently selected layer to be hidden e not drawn on the map Map background Click inside the map background color box to change the background color used Type Label displaying what type the layer currently is polygon or polyline Align map If you need to adjust
49. o it is a general recommendation that you keep it enabled at all times If you for some reason need to deactivate the activity coupling just set the angle parameter to O degrees Note also that the activity coupling will only affect storms TRAC targets that are inside the Outer boundary distance parameter Figure 7 Left image shows how a storm system is ranged with activity coupling disabled Right image shows the same storm at the exact same time but with activity coupling enabled 20 degrees angle 200 km 125 mi Note how in figure 7 right image cluster fragmentation is almost non existent and the entire thunderstorm system is ranged closer with the activity coupling enabled The right side image in fact displays exactly the storm s actual position this day while the left image is not as accurate for the clusters to either side of the nearest storm Another notable thing is the distance to the activity closest to center At the exact point in time when these screenshots were made the thunderstorm was passing overhead moving towards north east so the activity coupling is producing overall better ranging to the storm than in the left image where it was disabled With this in mind you can use the activity coupling when making ranging calibrations The angle and outer boundary values are by default set to 20 degrees and 100 km 63 mi respectively but feel free to experiment with these values if you feel it is required See O 2007 Astrogenic S
50. o run if it has insufficient disk space for storing its data Edition 5 L1 3007 0902 2007 Astrogenic Systems Table of Contents Page 31 Lightning Detection Software Version 1 0 Ranging tab Under this tab you can adjust all of NexStorm s non segmented ranging functions There are four range modifiers that can be used independent of each other which ones you should use depends on the type of ranging calibrations that you need to make NexStorm configuration options l y _ x Map graphics Data graphics Strike symbols Density plot TRAC settings Sound setup Alarms Hardware System Ranging Nighttime ranging upshift Sunrise O5 05 Sunset20 26 Latitude UTE offset 59 59 o Hrs Longitude Range shit Boundary E IR 18 01 150 Yo ERT 375 mil IS Enabled General strike ranging Plot scale adjustment Correction 0 00 Plot range default range 1 000 a Reset a Reset IT 2x effect boost Noise Ranging Assist dE OFF Weak Moderate Full Dialog transparency x Close Figure 11 Ranging configuration settings Nighttime ranging upshift This function will change ranging of strikes upwards by the specified percentage and starting from the specified distance but only during night Nighttime ranging upshift utilizes a sun position calculator In order for this feature to activate and deactivate at the correct times you have to enter your location s Degrees Dec
51. oftware Version 1 0 On map strike presentation Under this tab you will also find settings for strike persistence and new strike persistence The persistence setting controls how long a strike plot will be visible on the map The checkbox New strike enabled will disable the new strike flag if unchecked To setup which strike symbols and history color coding to use click on the Strike symbols tab Y Tip To configure map overlay colors click the right mouse button while the mouse cursor is hovering over the map window A pop up menu will appear allowing you to chose which component of the overlay you want to adjust the color for This pop up menu also contains shortcuts to other application configuration dialogs The Map setup Vector map configuration Map graphics and Strike symbol configuration dialogs can all be accessed directly from here Edition 5 L1 3007 0902 2007 Astrogenic Systems Table of Contents Page 18 Lightning Detection Software Version 1 0 Data graphics tab Shortcut key Ctrl G NexStorm configuration options J _ gt TRAC settings Sound setup Alarms Hardware System Ranging Map graphics Data graphics Strike symbols Density plot Strike and noise alert indicator settings Alert indicators lit up duration 60 ms Strike rate trend graph configuration and colors EZ Graph baselines O Close graph e Show alarm trigger value O Time scale digits E Noise graph L3 Show no
52. ortable detector Select which type you are using by checking the appropriate radio button under Receiver type If you are using an ISA card detector with a non standard hardware port address you can assign the appropriate address in the ISA card port address edit box Note that the address must be given in hexadecimal number format Press the Enter button to commit the change and to allow NexStorm to verify that the number you provided was a valid hexadecimal number If you are using the LD 250 detector make sure to select the appropriate serial port before enabling the receiver Antenna alignment The Antenna alignment feature allows you to mount your StormTracker antenna in any direction as the deviation from north can be fully compensated for by adjusting the alignment parameter The Reverse X Y swap switch must be used if the antenna north has been mounted pointing somewhere towards the south in essence between bearing 90 and 270 When you have made your adjustments the figure within parenthesis above the adjustment slider will show the direction in degrees that your antenna is physically pointing to Examples Antenna direction Adjustment Reverse X Y swap 360 degrees 0 unchecked 180 degrees 0 checked 315 degrees North 45 unchecked 225 degrees South 45 checked Table 2 KS Note The adjustment you make here will not be stored in the archived data Archived strikes are stored without any regard to the Antenna alignment adj
53. our problem please contact us or post your support issue on our message board The software support email address is support astrogenic com Edition 5 L1 3007 0902 2007 Astrogenic Systems Table of Contents Page 51 Lightning Detection Software Version 1 0 Email your support questions to Support astrogenic com Users of NexStorm Demo are not eligible for support from Astrogenic Systems NexStorm StormVue NexDrive NexMap CVM are trademarks of Astrogenic Systems Astrogenic Systems web site http Awww astrogenic com Edition 5 L1 5007092 2007 Astrogenic Systems Table of Contents Page 52
54. p the archive without regard to its size so avoid performing this operation frequently Archive maintenance Move after completion This feature allows you to move a completed archive to another location on the same hard drive Normally you would create a subfolder in the NexStorm installation folder and configure this feature to move completed archives to this location Daily archives are finalized at midnight each day and it is after this point in time that they will be relocated Don t forget to select which folder to use as the archive storage by pressing on the Directory button and selecting a folder or this function will not have any effect Note that NexStorm will only move the previous day s archive if it is allowed to run past the point at which date change occurs Archive maintenance Do not archive noises Enable this option if you are not interested in archiving noise data Not archiving noise data will render smaller archives so this setting is particularly useful if your setup has intermittent noise problems which would cause the program to store a lot of garbage data in the archives You should strive for as noise free environment as possible when mounting your lightning detector antenna Even moderate amounts of false electro magnetic signals showing as strikes and or noises on the NexStorm display may adversely affect ranging accuracy NexStorm VM Usage System status Memory Status and Internal memory buffer The vi
55. rtual memory usage setting VM controls how much system memory NexStorm will allocate to store its strike data in All strikes and noises are stored into a memory buffer the VM usage setting controls how much system memory this buffer will use You can see how many strike records will fit into the buffer with your current VM usage setting by looking at the Memory status Reserved space entry The amount of kilobytes these records occupy is visible directly below The percentage of virtual memory used is visible in the System virtual memory usage bar this should correspond to the setting you chose for VM usage You can also see how much of the entire buffer is currently being used by looking at the NexStorm buffer usage bar Once the memory buffer is full NexStorm will begin recycling it The oldest strikes will be removed from memory and new strikes will be put in the buffer in place of older ones A buffer usage of 100 is in other words nothing that will stop NexStorm from running it just means that the entire allocated buffer has been populated with data and is a perfectly normal situation Old strike data is always saved to the archive so you will not risk losing any data even when the buffer is filled to capacity Edition 5 L1 2007 0902 2007 Astrogenic Systems Table of Contents Page 30 Lightning Detection Software Version 1 0 You can adjust the VM usage between 5 and 20 percent It is recommended that you adapt this setting to the
56. s values gt 1 0 Similarly for downscaled ranges the storm clusters will become more compacted although this is not as evident as the radial elongation that occurs with upscaling The reason for this behavior is that when you adjust the Plot scale you are also modifying the radial distance ratio of the area i e the map where strike and storm data are being plotted The General ranging does not exhibit the radial elongation or compacting problem but is on the other hand more complicated to adjust properly since you are not modifying existing strike and storm positions but rather instructing NexStorm which way to nudge or bias ranging Another drawback with General ranging correction is that it will take a much longer time for the adjustment to take effect Depending on the strike rate of a storm it can take anywhere between 5 and 30 minutes before you see the effects of your change Generally you should use Plot scale adjustment if you need to make smaller corrections frequently or during calibration work when you want to estimate how much General or Segmented ranging needs to be applied After transferring the required Plot scale change to either one of the other two available ranging functions it should be reset to zero Edition 5 L1 2007 0902 2007 Astrogenic Systems Table of Contents Page 34 Lightning Detection Software Version 1 0 Plotscale 1 5 General ranging 50 0 Figure 12 Radial elongation example Note how the radial
57. s is identical Base maps can be assigned as either a full range or medium range base map The difference is the area of geographical coverage While the full range base map needs to cover the entire 1200 km 750 mi view range the medium range map should only cover half this range e g 600 km 375 mi The reason for having two different base maps is because to the pixelation effect that becomes evident on images with high magnification factors With two base maps this problem can be reduced as the medium range base map is better adapted for showing closer view ranges while the full range map is better for more distant ranges A note on map rendering order The medium range base map has precedence over the full range base map so that if you have assigned both once the view range is inbound of 600 km 375 mi the medium range map will be rendered in the map window instead of the full range map Similarly if a CVM map is assigned it will be rendered at all view ranges irrespective of any base maps that are assigned Lastly any custom zoom level maps that you assign will be rendered at their respective view ranges irrespective of what other type of map is assigned This rendering priority procedure is called Z ordering and allows you to extensively configure your map display without the need to constantly load and unload maps KS Note Although the NexStorm maximum view range is 1200 km 750 miles this in no way implies that your lightning dete
58. s the current system date and time Labels in the System frame are clickable for instance clicking once on the Squelch label will bring up the Configuration dialog focused on the Hardware tab where you can adjust the receiver squelch Statistics frame The bottom frame is the Statistics frame lt holds the peak strike rate counter and time indicator the application uptime counter plot mode indicator and the strike rate trend graph Edition 5 L1 3007 0902 2007 Astrogenic Systems Table of Contents Page 9 Lightning Detection Software Version 1 0 Uptime 00 00 Peak time E Peak rate Ormin 16 04 Trend graph 60 min Ol 10 Figure 1 NexStorm Lite textual data frames Edition 5 L1 2007 09 02 min A Strike and Noise alert indicators and the latest strike bearing indicator The strike and noise indicators will light up when a strike or noise is detected alerting you of the event that just occurred The latest strike bearing indicator will display the bearing to the latest strike that was detected making it easier for you to locate the strike on the map To control how long the strike and noise indicators should be lit up open the Configuration dialog Data graphics tab and adjust the indicator s duration time You can also click on the System frame clock label to view the same tab in Configuration dialog B Per minute counters for strikes close strikes and noises Close strikes are classified according to
59. strogenic Systems Table of Contents Page 24 Lightning Detection Software Version 1 0 Sound tab Use this dialog to configure which sounds to use for strike and noise beeps and for the configurable alarms You can configure NexStorm to use either your PC s internal speaker or sampled sounds in Wave file format WAV when playing sounds Use the radio buttons under Select sound generation in this dialog to set which type of sounds should be used NexStorm configuration options l ioj x Map graphics Data graphics Strike symbols Density plot TRAC settings Sound setup Alarms Hardware System Ranging Internal PC speaker settings Strike beep pitch Noise beep pitch Duration 20 ms Wave sound assignments Strike click Noise click Close storm alarm General severe storm alarm Severe storm cell alarm JE Projects BCB NenStorm sor strike alert j Qh Test Dialog transparency 4 Figure 9 Sound settings tab To alter the pitch and length of a PC speaker generated strike or a noise alert use the sliders under pitch and duration sliders To configure which sampled sounds WAV format NexStorm should use for alerts and alarms click on the corresponding Open file button next to the edit box of the sound you want to assign You can test all of the assigned sounds by setting the desired sound mode then selecting the alarm or alert you wish to hear and pressing the Test button In PC speaker
60. t drop the new cpd 0 file in this folder while NexStorm Lite is running docs NexStorm Lite documentation driver Windows 2000 XP 2003 Server Vista installation program for our Boltek StormTracker ISA card and PC speaker sound device driver rkernel Segmented ranging correction kernels filename krn sound Supplied sounds for use with NexStorm Lite WAV file format You can also put your own sounds here util Contains the NexMap utility for creating your own background maps graph This directory is created when you run NexStorm Lite and will contain strike rate graph data that is loaded into memory after the software is restarted KS Note Under Windows Vista several of these folders and certain files mentioned below may be stored in the Virtual Store See Windows Vista notes section on next page for more details Files NexStormLite exe gfx dll StormPCI_DLL dll nxsplash bmp NexStorm Lite executable dynamic link libraries and the splash screen image that is shown during startup unwise exe NexStorm Lite uninstaller program Do not run unless you want to remove NexStorm Lite from your system Additionally a configuration file named confdatalt bin and daily lightning data archives filename extension nex will also be stored in the home directory when the program is run Archives may be moved automatically to a different directory by using the Move after completion feature Edition 5 L1 3007 0902 2007 Astrogenic Systems Tab
61. t will double the power of the ranging adjustment and can be used if you find that the default maximum or minimum setting is not sufficient for your calibrations Note that there is also a separate 2x effect boost provided in the Segmented Ranging Correction The General ranging correction is omni directional changing it will affect strike ranging in all directions Strikes that occurred before an adjustment was made will not be affected To see the effect on TRAC targeted stormcells you must allow the program to process some 30 or more strikes per target before the adjustment you did will have any impact on the storm distance For this reason it is better to use the Replay for calibration work using General ranging correction as you then can speed up the whole process Remember to have a great deal of patience when making ranging calibrations These kind of adjustments can take several months to get perfect and even then you can not expect every single storm to be positioned accurately Instead of making calibrations using real time data make notes of how and where storms are ranged good or not so good and then use the Replay function at a later time to make your calibrations it will save you a lot of time Use the General ranging correction in conjunction with the Segmented Ranging Correction to achieve optimal ranging The Segmented ranging allows you to adjust ranging for 8 separate sectors and should be used where environmental circumstanc
62. the map center use the arrow buttons to move the map in one of four directions The closer you zoom in on the map the more precise will the movement become To reset any alignment that has been made press the center button with a red C on it Save color settings Press this button to save any color changes you have made Note that the CVM map is self contained in regard to its data so any changes you make will be saved directly to the CVM file For this reason it is strongly recommended that you make a backup copy of your CVM map before you start modifying its color settings See O 2007 Astrogenic Systems Table of Contents Page 42 Lightning Detection Software Version 1 0 REPLAY The replay feature is used not only for replaying older archives in NexStorm it is also an excellent tool for ranging calibrations Despite the name of this feature it does not replay the archive in the true sense of the word Instead while you are replaying NexStorm actually reprocesses each strike in the archive using its raw data component as the source for computation It is very much comparable to your Boltek StormTracker hardware receiving a strike that is then processed by NexStorm only with replay the signal arrives from the archive For this reason replaying the same archive twice will produce similar but rarely identical results Before we go through the available features in replay you should note that during a replay session the file upload a
63. the program Let s step through the available tabs Map graphics tab NexStorm configuration options j _ x Sound setup Alarms Hardware System Ranging Hop graphics Data graphics Strike symbols TRAC settings Distance rings configuration e Draw distance rings Number of rings j h Draw distance labels north Draw distance labels south Distance units fkm D W Draw azimuth lines Jh Draw center cross On map strike presentation Mew strike persistance 60 seconds W Enabled Strike persistance 30 minutes Figure 4 Configuration dialog Map settings tab Distance rings configuration Configures the map overlay graphics The map overlay consists of distance rings and labels azimuth lines and a center cross One additional item that can be drawn on the map is the Close alarm range ring This component is configured under the Alarm tab described in a later section You can configure which components of the overlay will be visible on the map by checking the corresponding checkboxes Use the dropdown lists to change the number of distance rings that are shown on the map or to change the units used for distance ring labels and other measurements in the program The available distance measurement units are kilometers km statue miles sm or nautical miles nm Edition 5 L1 007 09 02 2007 Astrogenic Systems Table of Contents Page 17 Lightning Detection S
64. to integrate live NexStorm lightning data into their own custom displays Advanced Lightning Density Plot mode TRAC Info pop up point and click on a thunderstorm on the map to view characteristics and intensity Automated map zooming based on current storm locations Built in Composite Vector Map to Windows BMP converter Archive lightning data extraction command line utility Full NexStorm Lite edition compatibility for all common features For more information or to upgrade visit our website or go directly to the NexStorm web page here for full NexStorm standard edition specifications See O 2007 Astrogenic Systems Table of Contents Page 50 Lightning Detection Software Version 1 0 APPENDIX B SUPPORT Hardware support For hardware related issues or problems with the Boltek StormTracker PCI device driver for Windows please contact Boltek at info boltek com Software support Before contacting support please visit our website and support forum to see if the problem that you are experiencing has already been reported or if there are any software upgrades solutions or workarounds available that may solve your problem You should also always try to replicate the problem with NexStorm running standalone on the computer where the problem was initially observed This is to rule out any incompatibilities caused by other applications that may be running on the same computer as NexStorm If all else fails and you are unable to solve y
65. ts Page 5 Lightning Detection Software Version 1 0 TERMS AND NOTATIONS USED IN THIS MANUAL Terms TRAC Thunderstorm Ranging and Acquisition subprocess Ranging a computational process used to determine strike locations CG Positive cloud to ground strike CG Negative cloud to ground strike IC Positive in cloud or intracloud strike IC Negative in cloud or intracloud strike Left click or Right click indicates you should press the left or right mouse button usually while the mouse pointer is hovering over a specific location on the user interface CVM Composite Vector Map a proprietary scalable vector map format for use in NexStorm Within the contents of this manual NexStorm and NexStorm Lite are used interchangeably and refer to the NexStorm Lite version which you have installed on disk Notations Throughout this text there are shorthand notations used to indicate what you should do to access a specific section of the user interface For instance Options gt Configuration gt System means that you should select Option from the main menu then select Configuration from the drop down menu and finally select the System tab in the Configuration dialog that subsequently opens Configuration gt System means exactly the same thing only here the main menu item Options has been omitted and it is assumed that you know how where to find the Configuration menu option Ctrl Letter denotes shortcut keys In the case of Ctrl S you s
66. u to calibrate ranging on a per sector and distance segment basis The segmented ranging is linear one unit of correction is equally worth no matter if the total calibration value is high or low Kernels The Segmented ranging consists of 56 adjustable cells 8 sectors with 7 distance segments for each sector When put together these cells are called a ranging kernel A kernel can be saved to disk and loaded at a later time Once you change a kernel and save it that particular kernel will be used by NexStorm for ranging until a different kernel is loaded or the kernel parameters are reset You can have several kernels saved on disk but only one at a time can be used for ranging Custom made kernels should be stored in the rkernel subfolder in NexStorm installation directory You can name each saved kernel differently assign a revision number to it and write a short comment to keep track of changes you have made To set a revision number or write comment for the currently loaded kernel open the Kernel info dialog from within the Segmented ranging correction dialog Linking When calibrating you can link a sector or a distance segment so that the changes you make are synchronized for the whole sector or the distance segment in all sectors You can also crosslink a sector with a distance segment or vice versa Any change of value you then make will apply to all distance segments for that sector Similarly changes made to a distance segment will
67. ular storm To learn more about TRAC and On map Ident refer to the TRAC section of this manual Segmented Ranging Correction With the segmented ranging correction you can tune the way NexStorm will range strikes in different directions and distances Subsequently this will affect the TRAC subprocess and how close or far away a storm is determined to be Contrary to the general ranging correction described later the segmented ranging only applies to a specific sector and or distance A complete segmented ranging correction configuration is called a kernel A kernel can be saved to or loaded from disk For hints and examples on how to use this feature refer to the Segmented Ranging section of this manual Ranging adjustments Shortcut key Ctrl Z Selecting this menu option will open the Configuration dialog and focus it on the Ranging tab where you can make generic non segmented ranging calibrations Display mode NexStorm supports 3 different display modes ranging from 800x600 up to a maximum of 1152x864 pixels The display mode determines how large part of your desktop area the NexStorm graphical user interface will occupy Choosing Autosize as the display mode will make NexStorm attempt to occupy the full desktop area up to a screen resolution of 1152x864 pixels If your system is configured for a higher screen resolution than this the display mode will default to the maximum available size of 1152x864 Zoom Insert Delete buttons
68. ustment setting Edition 5 L1 3007 0902 2007 Astrogenic Systems Table of Contents Page 28 Lightning Detection Software Version 1 0 Receiver settings Allows you to set the StormTracker receiver squelch and to adjust the Noise sensitivity filter High squelch settings above 4 will cause many weak signals to be filtered out by the receiver and should be avoided as it will affect the precision of strike ranging and TRAC If you have a signal pollution problem with a substantial amount of false strikes being plotted on your map you should first and foremost try to locate and eliminate the source of the false signal emissions The Noise sensitivity filter can be used to increase or decrease the amount of signals that are classified as noises A setting of Low or Very low will allow more signals to be classified as strikes while a setting of High or Very high will filter out more signals as noises Use this setting with caution lowering it might in some cases allow for better ranging in general but could in other cases interfere with the ranging process and make it unreliable Setting the Noise filter to High or Very high might in some instances alleviate problems with false stroke signal sources in your vicinity although the higher noise filter that is used the higher percentage of actual strike signals will be discarded as well The best way to determine which setting to use with your StormTracker installation is through experimentation
69. ware that depending on the intensity of the storms that are being replayed and the computer you are using very high replay speeds will adversely affect the NexStorm performance in general Users with low end systems should in all cases avoid using excessively high replay speeds To replay and loop today s archive s last 30 or 60 minutes click the More options button and press the appropriate button This particular feature in the replay will replay the last 30 or 60 minutes of today s archive then reload the latest captured data once it has played the archive to the end You may also replay the currently used archive by opening it like any other older archive but you will not have the option to set the start and stop times This feature is only available to allow viewing data captured prior to the last 60 minutes To be able to replay today s archive with time control make a copy of today s archive and replay the copy instead You do not have to disable or restart the program in order to make a copy NexStorm does not continuously lock the archive file while running To adjust ranging with the replay refer to the Ranging adjustment section of this manual The procedure for applying ranging correction is identical irrespective of which mode you are in replay or real time Edition 5 L1 3007 0902 2007 Astrogenic Systems Table of Contents Page 44 Lightning Detection Software Version 1 0 TRAC REPORT Thunderstorm Ranging and Acquis
70. ypes NexStorm provides you with three different types of alarms Severe storm alarm Triggered by a configurable strike rate set by the user Close storm alarm Triggered by a TRAC targeted stormcell being at or inside of an adjustable range Severe storm cell alarm Triggered when a TRAC stormcell s strike rate goes above the user adjustable strike rate parameter The Severe and Close storm alarm triggers can be shown in the main user interface window by checking the Visible on map and Visible in graph checkboxes respectively Additionally strike and noise alerts can be deactivated for events that occur outside a specific distance by enabling the Inactive for storms outside option Alarm looping configuration setting When an alarm is triggered its associated sound whether played using the PC speaker or wav sound will be played the amount of times that is configured under the Alarm looping configuration setting The pause parameter tells NexStorm how many seconds it should wait between playing consecutive alarms Edition 5 L1 2007 09 02 2007 Astrogenic Systems Table of Contents Page 27 Lightning Detection Software Version 1 0 Hardware tab Receiver type and hardware port address Before you can use NexStorm for detecting lightning you must configure it for the type of Boltek detector that is installed on your system NexStorm supports both the older ISA type detector as well as the newer PCI type detector and the LD 250 p
71. ystems Table of Contents Page 23 Lightning Detection Software Version 1 0 On map Ident This feature in conjunction with the TRAC target color mapping allows you to instantly see important characteristics of a storm by simply viewing it on the map The identity text that is attached to a TRAC target is called a tag You enable On map ident by selecting in the drop down box how the identify labels should be displayed either Single or All Single will attach the identification tag to the storm that was last selected in the TRAC Report table All will attach identity tags to all storms that are being tracked Flip tag button see TRAC Report section Flip tag button The format of the ident code when viewed from left to right is as follows example assumes an On map ident code on the map showing K 2332 4 K 2332 Identification code for the thunderstorm the letter and numbers are unique for each storm and are computed based on the time of detection Look for this identification code in the TRAC Report table to locate additional information about the storm blue or red Dominating Cloud to Ground strike polarity in this storm can be negative or positive 4 last recorded strike rate strike rate A increasing v decreasing no change or undetermined Storm identification number F 6171 dominating CG strike polarity is positive latest recorded strike rate per minute 3 no detectable change in strike rate B Storm ide

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