Flash observations

The Finnish Meteorological Institute's lightning locator detects and locates lightning throughout Finland. The observations include ground lightning with partial strikes and some cloud lightning. However, the observing efficiency of cloud flashes is significantly lower than that of earth balms. The most important parameters indicated by the locator are time and location information. The system also reports estimates of peak current and positioning inaccuracies, among other things. In the case of earth balms, the positioning accuracy (ground contact point) is typically less than 1 km, but the positioning accuracy varies from location to location. In total, the data contains the entire allowed continuum up to a maximum value of 25 km. For cloud galaxies, error estimates are typically higher, but on the other hand, their location cannot be precisely determined by a single point (there is no earth contact).