This document provides information about lightning protection and grounding. The information helps you to tailor the basic protection and grounding methods to suit the infrastructure and soil type at the meteorological site.
This document is written for people who are bidding for, designing, and installing Vaisala outdoor instruments and systems, including but not limited to: wind masts, weather stations, hydrological stations, road weather stations, lightning detectors, and optical instruments for airports.
If the product manuals give specific grounding or lightning protection instructions, as well as surge protection instructions, follow those instructions. You can use the information of this manual to tailor those instructions to suit the actual installation site.
- For the related standards and theories behind the suggested solutions, see Reference Material.
- For the concepts of signal grounding and overvoltage protection inside the equipment, see Lightning Overvoltages. For details, see the product specific manuals.
The lightning protection system components presented in this manual follow the recommendations of the standards IEC 62305 edition 2 and UL 96A edition 12.
- For guidance on buildings and other inhabited constructions, see the IEC 62305 series (or UL 96A in the U.S.A).
- For guidance on weather radar towers, see FAA-STD-019 (revision E or later).