Lightning Generated Electromagnetic Fields and the Currents Induced within a Closed Loop Contour

Current literary research employs a variety of models to resolve the electromagnetic fields which result from natural and rocket-triggered lightning strike events. While some models use fairly rigorous physics based approaches others rely on measurements procured in the field. This dissertation will utilize an empirically based approach for deriving the fields which result from natural lightning return strokes. The methodology presented will revisit previously addressed approaches from a dissimilar perspective. The topics discussed include: Imperfect Conductors, Tortuous Return Strokes and the Modified Double Exponential Current Waveform. The approach for the first topic examines how the electromagnetic fields are affected by lightning striking an imperfectly conductive surface. The novelty of the approach used has surmised how the vertical positioning of a charge or image channel may vary in terms of surface conductivity. The second topic addresses the effect lightning tortuosity may have on the resulting fields. This approach introduces a new distance which correlates the staggered nature of a return stroke to a fixed observation point. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that the resulting fields from straight-line models and symmetrically tortuous models converge at a distance of approximately 1000 meters. The last topic investigates the type of magnetic fields which may result from an approximated double exponential waveform. Although the research community feels a more realistic waveform can be represented by the Heilder function which has a time derivative of zero at t = 0, it is noteworthy to investigate the double exponential given its usage by branches of the United States military.;Through case studies, the magnetic fields from each of the described topics will be utilized to determine the types of currents induced within a closed loop contour. Wire AWG and material type will be varied to investigate how much of an effect these parameters play in the overall results obtained. As the results will show, these parameters play an appreciable role in determining the magnitudes of the currents induced within a single conducting wire.