Identification of Lightning Discharge Parameters by Its Effect on Fiber-Optic Communication Lines

The article addresses a study of the effect electrically active negative-polarity thunderstorm clouds and the parameters of discharges from them have on the signal transmitted via a fiber-optic cable. By using the GROZA (THUNDERSTORM) experimental-and-measurement system, which has means to produce artificial clouds of charged water aerosol, a thunderstorm activity was physically simulated. Fiber-optic cables of several types (fully dielectric and armored), through which linearly polarized radiation was transmitted, were considered as objects of research. During the study, the cable position with respect to the discharge place was varied. It has been revealed that the amplitude of rapid changes in the power of the optical signal transmitted via a fully dielectric optical cable tends to grow with increasing the discharge current amplitude from an artificial thunderstorm cloud near the cable. A dependence of slow variations in the power of the signal transmitted via a fully dielectric cable on variations in the electric field induced by an artificial thunderstorm cloud has been established. A relationship between the parameters of the transmitted optical signal and variations in the electromagnetic field near it caused by thunderstorm activity is shown. The results obtained have shown the possibility of further development of thunderstorm activity direction-finding techniques and identification of lightning discharge parameters using a network containing fiber-optic lines of various types.