Dr. SUN Zhuling from Institute of Atmospheric Physics (IAP) of Chinese Academy of Sciences was honored with Young Scientist Award at the 32nd International Conference on Lightning Protection (ICLP2014) held in Shanghai, China, during Oct 13-17, 2014. Dr. SUN and three other young scientists won the award for their outstanding achievement on lightening research.

The honor was given to Dr. SUN in recognition of the efforts in developing a new lightning VHF radiation location system based on short-baseline time-difference of arrival technology to observe lightning discharge with high temporal and spatial resolution.

Dr. SUN improved the conventional algorithm of delay estimation, and adopted the wavelet analysis algorithm, a generalized cross correlation time delay estimation algorithm and a parabolic interpolation algorithm to improve the system location accuracy. The system has been applied in the Shandong Artificially Triggering Lightning Experiment. A large amount of lightning location data has been obtained for both the rocket-triggered lightning and natural lightning flashes, the progression of lightning discharge channels can now be visually reconstructed, and positive K-change discharge is newly detected.

During the conference, Dr. SUN gave a presentation on “Development of Short-Baseline Time-Difference of Arrival Location System and Observations on Lightning Discharge”. He introduced the whole system structure, the software to control the system and the realization of the continuous or sequential signal acquisition over the entire duration of a lightning flash as the first case in China.

The ICLP Young Scientist Award was award to young scientists (below 35 years) who have delivered an oral or poster presentation of high quality at the International Conference on Lightning Protection and have made notable contributions in the field of lightning research and lightning protection.

The ICLP, held every two years, is one of the most famous international conferences on lightning research. This year, 562 scientists from 50 countries attended the conference with 558 papers presented.