The Art and Science of Lightning Protection

Martin A. Uman is Distinguished Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Florida. He is generally acknowledged to be one of the world's leading authorities on lightning, and has been the recipient of numerous awards for his work including the 2001 American Geophysical Union John Adam Fleming Medal and the 1996 Heinrich Hertz Medal by the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE). Professor Uman has written several previous books on the subject of lightning including Lightning: Physics and Effects co-authored by Vladimir A. Rakov (Cambridge University Press, 2003).

Review of the hardback: 'The greatest strength of this text is that it is written by the most authoritative lightning scientist/engineer in the world who brings over 40 years of research and teaching in the field, with over 200 reviewed papers and several previous books on lightning … There is no one in the world more qualified to write this book. … There are no other books, in my opinion, that compete with this publication. Uman is the most competent individual to write this book, which fills a gap between the advanced text that he coauthored with Rakov and his introductory popular book, All About Lightning, published by Dover Publications in 1986. I recommend this book without any hesitation.' Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society

• Preface; 1. What is lightning?; 2. Lightning damage; 3. General methods for lightning protection: Faraday cages, topological shields; and more practical approaches: cone of protection and rolling sphere methods; 4. Structure protection: air terminals and down conductors; 5. Structure protection: grounding; 6. Surge protection for electronics in low-voltage electrical systems; 7. Humans and animals; 8. Lightning warning; 9. Airships, airplanes, and launch vehicles; 10. Ships and boats; 11. Trees; 12. Overhead and underground power and communication lines; 13. Lightning elimination; 14. So, what do we know and what don't we know about lightning protection?; References; Index.