[time-nuts] Loran, GPS, Lightning, Timing

Tom Van Baak tvb at LeapSecond.com
Tue Jun 24 16:51:58 UTC 2014


A friend pointed me to this site:

US http://www.blitzortung.org/Webpages/index.php?lang=en&page_0=30 
EU http://www.blitzortung.org/Webpages/index.php?lang=en

This is a wonderful out-of-the-box project, with echoes of Loran-C and GPS triangulation. It's also a clever combination of home-brew receivers, UTC timestamping, the web, and global participation. You'll find technical details on the site; it makes good reading for any time nut. And adds new meaning to "pulse per second"...

Two questions.
1) Is anyone on the list a participant in this effort?

2) Can you imagine applying this entire process in reverse. That is, instead of using GPS to timetag lightning strikes, use lightning strikes to synchronize a global network of local clocks. Ok, getting accurate time and disciplining clocks with GPS or NTP or WWVB is too easy so why bother. But it would be interesting to use this raw data to set, calibrate, and discipline local clocks, as an redundant method, independent of existing broadcast T&F sources. Some crunching on the data would at least determine what level of precision could be obtained with a, what shall we call it, CLDO (Coordinated Lightning Disciplined Oscillator).

/tvb



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