Publications related to Overview of Recent Progress in Lightning Research and Lightning Protection

High-frequency response of a hemispherical grounding electrode

Farhad Rachidi-Haeri, Marcos Rubinstein, Antonio Sunjerga

The lightning discharge current is characterized by a high-frequency spectrum extending from DC to about 10 MHz. The calculation of the grounding impedance is one of the most important aspects of designing lightning protection systems. The search for analy ...

Elsevier2024

Direct observations of X-rays produced by upward positive lightning

Farhad Rachidi-Haeri, Marcos Rubinstein, Antonio Sunjerga, Thomas Chaumont

X-rays have been observed in natural downward cloud-to-ground lightning for over 20 years and in rocket-triggered lightning for slightly less. In both cases, this energetic radiation has been detected during the stepped and dart leader phases of downward n ...

Nature Publishing Group2024

Lightning interaction with the ionosphere

Farhad Rachidi-Haeri, Marcos Rubinstein, Dongshuai Li

Lightning discharges, including cloud-to-ground (CG) and intracloud (IC) lightning, are known to emit electromagnetic pulses (EMPs) in a wide frequency band ranging from few Hz up to hundreds MHz [1]. During the breakdown and ionization processes (mostly f ...

IET2023

Modeling lightning strikes to tall towers

Farhad Rachidi-Haeri, Marcos Rubinstein

In this chapter, we present a review of recent progress in the modeling of lightning strikes to tall structures. Since some tall structures are struck by lightning several tens of times per year, they can be used as ground-truth to measure and calibrate th ...

IET2023

Laser-guided lightning using kHz filamentation at 1030 nm

Farhad Rachidi-Haeri, Marcos Rubinstein, Amirhossein Mostajabi, Antonio Sunjerga, Jonathan Leon Wolf

Controlling lightning is a long-time dream of mankind. Along with the rapid evolution of laser technologies, the idea to develop lightning protection based on filamentation of high-power ultrashort-pulse lasers emerged in the 1990s [1]. The goal of the Las ...

2023

Ionospheric Variations Induced by Thunderstorms in the Central Region of Argentina during the RELAMPAGO–CACTI Campaign

Farhad Rachidi-Haeri, Marcos Rubinstein

The ionosphere can be perturbed by solar and geomagnetic activity, earthquakes, thunderstorms, etc. In particular, electromagnetic pulses produced by thunderstorms can generate wave structures in the ionospheric plasma, which are known as atmospheric gravi ...

2023

Exact Expressions for Lightning Electromagnetic Fields: Application to the Rusck Field-To-Transmission Line Coupling Model

Farhad Rachidi-Haeri, Marcos Rubinstein

An exact analytical expression for the electric field of the return stroke as excited by a propagating step current source is derived in this paper. This expression could be advantageously used to evaluate the disturbances caused by lightning on overhead l ...

2023

Laser-guided lightning

Farhad Rachidi-Haeri, Marcos Rubinstein, Jean-Pierre Wolf, Pierre Walch, Clemens Herkommer, Amirhossein Mostajabi, Thomas Produit, Antonio Sunjerga, Victor Moreno

Lightning discharges between charged clouds and the Earth’s surface are responsible for considerable damages and casualties. It is therefore important to develop better protection methods in addition to the traditional Franklin rod. Here we present the fir ...

Nature Publishing Group2023

Tower-foot grounding model for EMT programs based on transmission line theory and Marti's model

Rafael Silva Alipio

This paper proposes a tower-foot grounding system model compatible with EMT programs which might be useful for the simulation of lightning transients in overhead lines. The proposed model is based on the solution of the telegrapher's equations and the appl ...

Elsevier2023

Lightning Nowcasting Using Solely Lightning Data

Farhad Rachidi-Haeri, Marcos Rubinstein, Amirhossein Mostajabi

Lightning is directly or indirectly responsible for significant human casualties and property damage worldwide. A timely prediction of its occurrence can enable authorities and the public to take necessary precautionary actions resulting in diminishing the ...

MDPI2023

Computation of the attenuation function of the lightning return-stroke current from electromagnetic fields measured in a short-duration time-window, Part I: Theoretical investigation

Farhad Rachidi-Haeri, Marcos Rubinstein

In a recent paper, a procedure to reconstruct the attenuation function of a return-stroke current from the simultaneous measurements of the channel-base current and the radiated electromagnetic fields was presented. One of the assumptions of the whole fram ...

Elsevier2023

A review of the modeling approaches of the lightning M-component with special attention to their current and electric field characteristics

Farhad Rachidi-Haeri, Marcos Rubinstein, Carlo Alberto Nucci, Mohammad Azadifar, Qi Li

In this paper, we present the characteristics of current, electric fields and modeling approaches of lightning M-component mode of charge transfer. We consider both the classical M-components (occurring after return strokes) and M-component-type ICC (Initi ...

Elsevier2023

EMC and earthing concept of the ITER EC-system

Damien Fasel, Ugo Siravo, Francisco Sanchez, Jérémie Dubray

Gyrotrons and High Voltage Power Supplies (HVPS) used on electron cyclotron (EC) systems are the source of large electromagnetic interference (EMI). Arcing events inside gyrotrons is the most frequently cited issue, but fast shutdown of a HVPS can produce ...

2023

Interaction of lightning-generated electromagnetic fields with overhead and underground cables

Farhad Rachidi-Haeri, Marcos Rubinstein, Carlo Alberto Nucci

In this chapter, we discussed the TL theory and its application to the problem of lightning electromagnetic field coupling to transmission lines. After a short discussion on the underlying assumptions of the TL theory, we described seemingly different but ...

IET2022

On the reconstruction of the attenuation function of a return-stroke current from the Fourier Transform of finite-duration measurements

Farhad Rachidi-Haeri, Marcos Rubinstein

A correct representation of the lightning current is crucial when the electromagnetic field radiated to a point of interest has to be computed. Based on the engineering models of Transmission Line type, such representation involves the knowledge of the ret ...

2022

A Prony-Based Approach for Accelerating the Lightning Electromagnetic Fields Computation: Effect of the Soil Finite Conductivity

Farhad Rachidi-Haeri, Marcos Rubinstein

This work provides an approach for speeding up the evaluation of lightning ElectroMagnetic (EM) fields in the case of a finite soil conductivity. The soil conductivity is taken into account through the well-known Cooray-Rubinstein (CR) approximation, which ...

Elsevier2022

A Self-Consistent Return Stroke Model That Includes the Effect of the Ground Conductivity at the Strike Point

Farhad Rachidi-Haeri, Marcos Rubinstein

A current generation type return stroke model which can take into account the possible modifications of the return stroke properties by the soil conductivity at the strike point of the lightning flash is introduced. The model is also capable of incorporati ...

2022

Comment on “Straight lightning as a signature of macroscopic dark matter”

Farhad Rachidi-Haeri, Marcos Rubinstein

In the discussed paper [N. Starkman, H. Winch, J. S. Sidhu, and G. Starkman, Straight lightning as a signature of macroscopic dark matter, Phys. Rev. D 103, 063024 (2021)], the authors have made several assumptions and statements concerning the initiation ...

2022

The Geometry and Charge of the Streamer Bursts Generated by Lightning Rods under the Influence of High Electric Fields

Farhad Rachidi-Haeri, Marcos Rubinstein

The streamer bursts generated during the initiation and propagation of leaders play an important role in the creation and maintenance of hot discharge channels in air. The most important parameters related to streamer bursts in this respect are the length ...

2022

On the Use of Benford’s Law to Assess the Quality of the Data Provided by Lightning Locating Systems

Farhad Rachidi-Haeri, Marcos Rubinstein, Amirhossein Mostajabi, Wolfgang Schulz

Lightning causes significant damage and casualties globally by directly striking humans and livestock, by igniting forest fires, and by inducing electrical surges in electronic infrastructure, airplanes, rockets, etc. Monitoring the evolution of thundersto ...

2022