A lightning location system basically consists of three components:

	Three or more sensors which determine the angle of incidence of the lightning electromagnetic field and/or the exact time of occurrence
	The Central Lightning Processor (e.g. LP2000) to calculate the flash strike position
	A display system for the graphical presentation of the lightning activity

All the GPS time stamped sensor data are transmitted to the Lightning Processor (LP2000). The first task of the lightning processor is to correlate data of the same lightning stroke based on the time information. It is important to note that at least two sensor messages are required to be able to calculate a flash location. Additional to the flash location the LP provides some supplementary information about the detected stroke:

	Time
	Polarity (positive/negative)
	Stroke peak current in kA

Calculation of the stroke location
Magnetic Direction Finding (MDF): The striking position can be determined by triangulation using two sensors. When three or more sensors report a discharge, an optimization which minimizes the "angle disagreement" between the reporting sensors can be employed.
Time of Arrival (TOA): A constant difference in the arrival time at two stations defines a hyperbola, and multiple stations provide multiple hyperbolas whose intersections define a source location.

IMPACT (IMProved Accuracy using Combined Technology) is combining direction-finding and time-of-arrival to produce yet another lightning location method. In this approach, direction finding provides azimuth information and absolute arrival time provides range information. These measurements produce three estimated parameters -- latitude, longitude, and discharge time. Thus the IMPACT method has redundant information which allows for an optimized estimate of location even when only two sensors provide both timing and angle information.

Location accuracy
The location accuracy of a single lightning stroke depends on many different parameters, e.g., the number of sensors involved, the distance to the sensors and the random error of the angle and the time measurement. For all detected lightning strokes in Austria a median location accuracy of better than 500 meters has been confirmed by ground truth measurements at the Gaisberg Tower.