NASA Pinpoints Lightning The Old-Fashioned Way

ke4roh writes: "As a child, I would watch a lightning flash and count the seconds until I heard the first clap of thunder. Get three kids counting in different places, and you could figure out where that cloud-to-ground strike was by coordinating their counts. That's the premise behind NASA's latest lightning detector, according to a press release. It uses a radio to detect the strike and four microphones spaced about 20 feet (7 m) apart. The neat part is its accuracy - about 15 feet (5 m) within a 1 mile (1.6 km) radius. The information should help them determine if lightning may have damaged sensitive launchpad equipment."