"James M. Knox" wrote:

It was from this that they found
that they could do a good estimate of distance by essentially matching the
basic pattern to one of several basic shapes (this is partly how they
exclude cloud-to-cloud) and then comparing the difference between the
"paradigm" shape and what was actually measured.

Dumb question time. Why exclude cloud-to-cloud? Wouldn't that type of lightning also
indicate conditions one would wish to avoid?

George Patterson
In Idaho, tossing a rattlesnake into a crowded room is felony assault.
In Tennessee, it's evangelism.