What probability is for lightning
to strike in some object? Can that be calculated? That should be main consider
for setting lightning rod installation. First step in finding that probability
would be to establish how many times lightning strike in some area. That
wasn't easy before because there were no information's or services which
provided that information's. That's why people started to explore the numbers
of lightning strike days in year for some areas. Based on that information's
we have isocheraunic charts. They contain lines that combine places which
have same or similar number of lightning strike days per year.
Those
kinds of charts are maid for different areas. On the isocheraunic chart
of world we can see that the areas around equator have more lightning
strike days than on the far north or south where that number is almost
zero.
Scientists have suggested few expressions that give us average number
of lightning strike days in 1 square kilometre per year. One of them is:

In this formula Ns is expected number of lightning strike
in 1 square mile per year. Ni is isocheraunic level (number of lightning
strike days per year) and alpha is geographic width of area. We can see
that the results can variate and could be used for orientation. Today
some developed countries use devices which record lightning strikes in
some area. Networks of that devices give us more precise informations
about lightning strikes per year in some areas.
To get probability of lightning strike in some object
we need the information about ground surface on Earth where the lightning
will strike. That information we can get from the geometry of desired
object. How?
We imagine the model of that object and the sphere, which radius matches
final permeable distance for the average lightning strike current in that
area. If we role the sphere around that object and it touches it. We record
places where sphere touches ground and we got the wanted surface.
When we know the average number of lightning strike per year on 1 square
kilometre (Ns) and we he have wanted surface (A), then we divide Ns with
A and we get the average number of lightning strike in some object per
year.
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