Abstract
With the application of lightning data in meteorology, electric power as
well as public safety, massive lightning data is accumulated. Meanwhile,
a synthesized and complicated problem arose, which is, how to
automatically obtain the valuable information from the massive lightning
data. The deep learning method provides an effective way to
automatically classify the event type of lightning discharges from raw
lightning data. In this paper, we propose a five-category classification
model for the raw lightning waveforms in VLF/LF bands. The model is
based on deep convolutional neural network, which is trained and tested
by a six year (2012-2017) data set that comprised of over 30000
lightning events. We did experiment with different layers of networks
and found that the 7-layer network gives the best performance. The
output of the classifier is a five-element vector which shows up the
results of different lightning type. Due to the multi-layer stacking of
the convolutional network, higher-order features can be better
extracted. Furthermore, the model we proposed can effectively identify
the cloud-to-ground (CG) flash, ordinary intracloud (IC) flash,
preliminary breakdown pulse (PB), narrow bipolar event (NBE), and
especially the error rate on CG is less than 3%. Finally, we apply the
classifier to the lightning data set for 2017 and group identified
return stroke into flashes by hand to qualify the accuracy-stroke-study
data of CG flashes. Based on the flashes, we present the characteristics
of cloud-to-ground lightning flashes in four isolated small
thunderstorms.