Lightning Sensors
 

Two of the aircraft types I have flown have had lightning sensors fitted. The relative bearing indication I understand to be similar to DF, but does anyone know how these devices measure the range of the discharge ?.

use your ADF.Its the most effective 'lightning finder'you can get.(just dont try navigating with it in a storm,please). range finding may be a problem though.

Capt. H,
From the L-3 (ex-Goodrich, ex-Ryan) Stormscope website:

The Series I ranged storms using the amplitude of the 50 kHz component of the lightning strike. The WX-1000 series uses several aspects of the 50 kHz component (Rise time, fall time, pulse width, etc.) The WX-900, 950 & 500 look at the same aspects of 11 different frequencies to range the strike. In addition the WX-500 & 950 have a “CELL” mode and a “STRIKE” mode, the Strike mode displays the strike similar to the Series I (with radial spread) and the Cell mode uses a more accurate method of ranging the strike.

I was once told that the direction finder approximated a 10 MHz ADF.

The Honeywell system may use a different method as it only shows areas of strikes as symbols rather than the dot per strike of the Stormscope.

They have an internal model of the signal stength & characteristics of a 'typical' lightning flash(es). The received signal is compared to the model & algorithms calculate the distance using the principle that signal strength reduces with distance.