Trac report, Thunderstorm ranging and acquisition, Targets – Boltek NexStorm Lite User Manual
Page 45: Trac target colors and intensities, Trac section
Lightning Detection Software, Version 1.0
TRAC REPORT
Thunderstorm Ranging and Acquisition
Thunderstorm Ranging and Acquisition, or TRAC for short, is a sub-process in NexStorm that contains all the
logic behind computing where thunderstorms are located and analyzing their characteristics. TRAC can also
produce a text-based report based on its findings to show you details about individual storms. The TRAC
related On-map ident feature uses TRAC data to display important information about a thunderstorm in coded
format directly on the map. If the On-map ident is enabled, each storm will have a tag attached to it, this tag
will show you the storm's identification number, its polarity, current strike rate and the strike rate trend over
the last few minutes.
When TRAC has detected what it believes to be a structured thunderstorm system, it will start tracking it until
the storm dissipates or the tracking could not be maintained for other reasons.
Targets
A tracked thunderstorm is called a target and the location of each target will be drawn on the map if the Plot
TRAC targets feature is enabled (see
). Targets can have different colors depending on the
intensity of the storm being tracked. The symbols and colors that are used for drawing targets on the map are
to some degree user configurable. The intensity level and the corresponding default color setting are
described in table 3.
TRAC Target colors and intensities
Color
Strike rate/min
Classification
Green 1-10
Weak
Yellow 11-49
Moderate
Red
> 50
Strong or Severe
If two targets collide, they will merge. The least active target will
in that case become a part of the more active one. The 20
minutes trend parameter will be reset at that point to allow for
recalculation of the new storm's actual intensity level. Strikes
that fall near a target are instantly coupled with it, these strikes
are called correlated. Strikes that fall too far away from any
target are classified as uncorrelated.
Table 3
Storm severity classification is a function of the inverse distance to a thunderstorm so the figures shown in
tables 3 and 4 will not apply for storms located at a farther distance. The figures presented here are based on
“ideal” storms that are within 150 km range (93 miles). The more distant a storm is, the lower the strike rate
will be required for upgrading its severity classification.
TRAC Report
TRAC will periodically generate a report based on current activity. This report can be viewed in tabular format
from within NexStorm by opening the TRAC Report dialog (Ctrl+T).
Edition: 5/L1
2007-09-02
© 2007 Astrogenic Systems
Page 45