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The Influence of the Slope Angle of the OceanLand

Mixed Propagation Path on the Lightning
Electromagnetic Fields
Javad Paknahad, Student Member, IEEE, Keyhan Sheshyekani, Senior Member, IEEE,
Mohsen Hamzeh, Member, IEEE, Dongshuai Li, and Farhad Rachidi, Fellow, IEEE

AbstractIn this paper, lightning electromagnetic fields in the

presence of an oceanland mixed propagation path having different configurations are evaluated using a finite-element-based
full-wave approach. The simulations are conducted considering
lightning strikes to ground and to the ocean. The lightning electromagnetic fields are obtained for observation points inside the
ground and on the ground surface. The landocean interface is
represented by a linearly increasing ocean depth characterized by
the slope angle. Different sets of simulation results show that the
electric field components (vertical and horizontal) in the immediate vicinity of the interface can be affected by the interface slope
angle. The obtained results also show that, for observation points
located beyond 50 m or so from the ocean, the effect of the slope
angle of the oceanland interface on the lightning electromagnetic
fields can be disregarded.
Index TermsFinite element method, lightning electromagnetic
fields, oceanland mixed propagation path.

I. INTRODUCTION
CCURATE evaluation of lightning electromagnetic fields
has been the subject of many investigations over the past
decades (e.g., [1]). In most of the works, as a common practice,
the ground has been assumed to be a homogeneous lossy or ideal
medium [1][7]. However, this assumption is rather unrealistic
in the sense that the ground is usually composed of different
horizontal or vertical layers. In addition, the electric parameters of the soil might exhibit a frequency dependence property.
Thus, extensive studies have been recently conducted to take
into account the effect of soil multilayer structure (see [8][26])
as well as the soil dispersive properties (see [27][31]) in the
calculation of lightning electromagnetic fields and their induced
disturbances on overhead lines and buried cables.
Concerning the effect of a vertically stratified ground also called mixed propagation path - although a few works
have addressed this problem, none of them has considered the

Manuscript received January 15, 2015; revised April 7, 2015; accepted May
16, 2015.
J. Paknahad, K. Sheshyekani, and M. Hamzeh are with the Electrical Engineering Department, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran 19839-63113, Iran
(e-mail: javadpaknahad@gmail.com; k_sheshyekani@sbu.ac.ir; hamzeh64@
gmail.com).
D. Li is with the Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology,
Nanjing 210044, China (e-mail: dongshuaili@gmail.com).

F. Rachidi is with the Ecole

Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Lausanne
1015, Switzerland (e-mail: farhad.rachidi@epfl.ch).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TEMC.2015.2435894

inclined nature of the oceanland interface, namely the ocean

depth quasi-linearly increasing with distance from the shoreline. It is noted that early works studying the wave propagation
along a vertically stratified ground are mainly those presented
by Millington [32], Suda [33], and Bremmer [34]. Recently,
the concept of attenuation function presented by Wait (see [35]
and [36]), has been used by Shoory et al. [9] for the evaluation
of lightning electromagnetic fields over a mixed propagation
path showing that the Waits formula is able to reproduce the
lightning electromagnetic fields for distant observation points.
In another attempt, Zhang et al. [10][12] have managed to
use a modified version of CoorayRubinstein formula for the
evaluation of lighting electromagnetic fields above a smooth
oceanland mixed path. The accuracy of the method is, however,
limited to conductivities ranging from 0.01 to 0.001 S/m when
the fields propagate from the ocean surface to the land section
[13]. More recently, a finite-difference time-domain (FDTD)
approach has been used to evaluate the validation of time domain method the effect of a horizontally and vertically stratified ground on the lightning induced voltages [14][16] and
electromagnetic fields [17]. In [18] and [19], the lightning electromagnetic fields have been computed over the ground taking
into account the ground roughness. Also, different approaches
for the calculation of lightning electromagnetic fields above a
horizontally stratified ground have been presented in [20][22].
Additionally, the finite element method (FEM) has also been
adopted for the evaluation of lightning electromagnetic fields
in the presence of either a horizontally stratified ground [23],
[24], or a vertically stratified ground [25], [26]. However, to the
best of the authors knowledge and as already mentioned, there
is no attempt in the literature to take into account the inclined
oceanland interface in the evaluation of lightning electromagnetic fields. Therefore, more investigations are required to model
the oceanland interface with a more accurate representation,
especially for observation points in the vicinity of the interface.
Within this context, this paper focuses on the evaluation of
the effect of an oceanland interface on the lightning radiated
electromagnetic fields inside the ground and on the ground surface. The analysis is carried out by making use of the COMSOL
Multiphysics software which is based on the FEM solutions of
Maxwells equations.
This paper is organized as follows. In Section II, we present
briefly the full wave finite element modeling for the calculation
of lightning electromagnetic fields. In Section III, the effect
of the oceanland interface on the lightning electromagnetic

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TABLE I
HEIDLERS PARAMETERS FOR TYPICAL SUBSEQUENT RETURN STROKES

Fig. 1. Geometry for the calculation of lightning electromagnetic fields in the

presence of an oceanland mixed propagation path. (a) Land strike (side view).
(b) Land strike (top view). (c) Ocean strike (side view).

Parameters

I0 1
(kA)

1 1
(s)

1 2
(s)

n1

I0 2
(kA)

2 1
(s)

2 2
(s)

n2

Typical
subsequent
return stroke
current

10.7

0.25

2.5

6.5

2.1

230

Fig. 2. Horizontal component of the electric field (E r ) at a depth of 1 m inside

the ground. (a) dl = 1 m, (b) dl = 5 m, (c) dl = 50 m. Return stroke current
typical of subsequent strokes (land strike and normal incidence).

II. ANALYSIS METHOD AND ADOPTED MODELS

with a current height decay constant of = 2000 m and assuming a return stroke speed of v = 1.5 108 m/s (see [37] and
[38]). According to the MTLE model, the current distribution
along the channel is expressed as

z  z
.e
(1)
i (z, t) = i 0, t
v

The geometry of the problem is shown in Fig. 1. We consider a vertical lightning return stroke channel in the vicinity
of an oceanland interface. The analysis of this problem using
COMSOL Multiphysics involves the modeling of: 1) lightning
return stroke channel, and 2) the mixed propagation path including the ocean and the land. Details about modeling of this
problem can be found in [23][26]. In our simulations, the air
is considered to be lossless (i.e., = 0, r = 1), while the land
and the ocean are respectively characterized by conductivity and
relative permittivity of (l = 0.001 S/m, r l = 10) and (o =
4 S/m, r o = 30). The lightning return stroke is modeled by using the transmission line with exponential decay (MTLE) model

where i(z, t) is the channel current at height z, while v denotes the

return stroke speed, and is the current height decay constant.
As for the lightning channel-base current, we use a waveshape typical of subsequent return strokes represented using a
sum of two Heidlers functions whose parameters are given in
Table I [39].
In COMSOL, natural Neumann conditions are used in the
soilair and in the soil layer interfaces, while the natural Dirichlet conditions are imposed on the solution domain as the external boundary condition [29]. To apply the finite element
approach to open region problems such as lightning electromagnetic field studies, an artificial boundary is introduced in

fields is discussed. Finally, general conclusions are presented in

Section IV.

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PAKNAHAD et al.: INFLUENCE OF THE SLOPE ANGLE OF THE OCEANLAND MIXED PROPAGATION PATH ON THE LIGHTNING

Fig. 3. Vertical component of the electric field (E z ) at a depth of 1 m inside

the ground. (a) dl = 1 m, (b) dl = 5 m, (c) dl = 50 m. Return stroke current
typical of subsequent strokes (land strike and normal incidence).

order to confine the region of analysis and to limit the number

of unknowns to a manageable size. For this purpose, the scattering boundary condition available in the RF module of COMSOL
is used in order to prevent the waves from being reflected by the
boundaries [40].
Regarding the modeling specifications, the simulations are
conducted on an Intel i7 PC with 64-GB RAM. A system of
linear equations is obtained using 185 613 mesh elements. For
the calculation of electromagnetic fields, we used a 2-D finite
element modeling which takes about 30 s and could be considered as an applicable choice for the assessment of the lightning
electromagnetic fields.
III. EFFECT OF THE INCLINED OCEAN-LAND INTERFACE
ON THE LIGHTNING ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELDS
With reference to Fig. 1, we aim at evaluating the lightning
radiated electromagnetic fields for two different angles of incidence 1 = 90 (henceforth referred to as normal incidence)
and 2 < 1 , (henceforth referred to as oblique incidence)
onto the oceanland interface. For both normal and oblique
incidences, results are obtained at two observation points: one
inside the ground and the other on the ground surface. Assuming
(x, y, z) = (0, 0, 0) m as the coordinates for the lightning stroke
location in Fig. 1(b), for normal incidence the coordinates of the
observation point on the ground surface is (0, 200, 0) m while
the coordinates for the observation point inside the ground is
(0, 200, 1). Similarly, for the case of oblique incidence, the
coordinates of the observation point on the ground surface is

Fig. 4. Azimuthal component of the magnetic field (H ) at a depth of 1 m

inside the ground. (a) dl = 1 m, (b) dl = 5 m, (c) dl = 50 m. Return stroke
current typical of subsequent strokes (land strike and normal incidence).

Fig. 5. Horizontal electric field at a depth of 1 m inside the ground, dl = 1 m.

Slope angle = 30 o . Return stroke current typical of subsequent strokes (land
strike and normal incidence). Results obtained using FEM and FDTD methods.

(100, 200, 0) m while the coordinates for the observation point

inside the ground is (100, 200, 1) m. In our simulations, the
oceanland interface is characterized by its slope angle (i.e.,
in Fig. 1). It is assumed that the ocean depth increases linearly
with distance from the land. We calculate the electromagnetic
fields for different distances between the observation point and
the oceanland interface (i.e., dl in Fig. 1).
We consider both lightning strikes to ground (referred to
as land strike) and to ocean (referred to as ocean strike).
For each considered case, we simulate the horizontal and vertical components of the electric field (i.e., Er , Ez ) and the azimuthal component of the magnetic field (i.e., H ), for different
distances between the observation point and the oceanland interface, namely dl = 1, 5 and 50 m.
This study is especially important for the evaluation of
lightning-induced voltages on overhead transmission lines and
induced currents on buried cables located near the sea or ocean.
In fact, according to this study, the electromagnetic fields

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Fig. 6. Horizontal component of the electric field (E r ) at a depth of 1 m inside

the ground. (a) dl = 1 m, (b) dl = 5 m, (c) dl = 50 m. Return stroke current
typical of subsequent strokes (land strike and oblique incidence).

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Fig. 8. Azimuthal component of the magnetic field (H ) at a depth of 1 m

inside the ground. (a) dl = 1 m, (b) dl = 5 m, (c) dl = 50 m. Return stroke
current typical of subsequent strokes (land strike and oblique incidence).

used in the LEMP-to-line coupling models can be properly

modified when needed for the calculation of lightning-induced
voltages/currents on the ocean-side transmission lines and
cables [41].
A. Land Strike: Electromagnetic Fields Inside the Ground

Fig. 7. Vertical component of the electric field (E z ) at a depth of 1 m inside

the ground. (a) dl = 1 m, (b) dl = 5 m, (c) dl = 50 m. Return stroke current
typical of subsequent strokes (land strike and oblique incidence).

Figs. 2 to 4 show, respectively, the horizontal electric field,

the vertical electric field and the azimuthal magnetic field at
observation point P1 at a depth of 1 m inside the ground for the
case of normal incidence, considering a land strike (see Fig. 1).
Simulations were carried out for different interface slopes ( =
30, 45, 60, 75 and 90). Note that a slope of = 90o (vertical
interface) corresponds to a vertical interface, as considered in
all previous studies.
Examining these figures, the following remarks can be made:
1) The vertical and horizontal components of the electric
field are noticeably affected by the oceanland interface
slope when the observation point is close to the interface
(i.e., dl = 5 m or so). As expected, this effect is much
more pronounced when the observation point gets closer
to the shoreline (i.e., dl = 1 m).
2) As the observation point gets far away from the ocean,
the effect of the oceanland interface slope becomes negligible. Starting from a distance of dl = 50 m [see Figs.
2(c) and 3(c)], the effect of oceanland interface slope
becomes negligible.

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PAKNAHAD et al.: INFLUENCE OF THE SLOPE ANGLE OF THE OCEANLAND MIXED PROPAGATION PATH ON THE LIGHTNING

Fig. 9. Horizontal component of the electric field (E r ) at the ground surface.

(a) dl = 1 m, (b) dl = 5 m, (c) dl = 50 m. Return stroke current typical of
subsequent strokes (land strike and normal incidence).

Fig. 10. Vertical component of the electric field (E z ) at the ground surface.
(a) dl = 1 m, (b) dl = 5 m, (c) dl = 50 m. Return stroke current typical of
subsequent strokes (land strike and normal incidence).

Fig. 11. Azimuthal component of the magnetic field (H ) at the ground

surface. (a) dl = 1 m, (b) dl = 5 m, (c) dl = 50 m. Return stroke current
typical of subsequent strokes (land strike and normal incidence).

3) From Fig. 4, it is seen that the azimuthal component of

the magnetic field is slightly affected by the oceanland
interface slope for an observation point very close to the
oceanland interface (i.e., dl = 1 m or so).
4) For observation points in the immediate vicinity of the
interface (dl = 1 m or dl = 5 m), the peak values of the
horizontal and vertical electric field components increase
with decreasing the slope angle.
The effect of the oceanland slope angle on the lightning
electromagnetic fields can be explained as follows: The ocean
can be represented by a conductive body with a tip that becomes
sharper when the slope angle decreases. This effect results in
an enhancement of the electric field in its immediate vicinity.
Obviously, the electric field enhancement is more significant
for a smaller slope angle (sharper tip). To confirm the obtained
results, we compared our FEM simulations with results obtained
using an independent computer code presented in [10], which
is based on the FDTD method. The results for the horizontal
electric field for an observation point at a depth of 1 m inside
the ground and for dl = 1 m and = 30 [corresponding to
Fig. 2(a)] is shown in Fig. 5. It can be seen that the FEM results
are in very good agreement with their FDTD counterparts.
For the case of oblique incidence, we calculated the same
components of the lightning electromagnetic fields at a depth
of 1 m inside the ground for the same distances between the
observation point and the oceanland interface (see Figs. 6
8). It can be seen from the simulation results that the lightning
electromagnetic fields inside the ground are affected by the slope

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Fig. 12. Azimuthal component of the magnetic field (H ) at the ground

surface with dl = 1 m. Return stroke current typical of subsequent strokes
(land strike and oblique incidence).

Fig. 14. Vertical component of the electric field (E z ) at a depth of 1 m inside

the ground. (a) dl = 1 m, (b) dl = 5 m and (c) dl = 50 m. Return stroke current
typical of subsequent strokes (ocean strike and normal incidence).

Fig. 13. Horizontal component of the electric field (E r ) at a depth of 1 m

inside the ground. (a) dl = 1 m, (b) dl = 5 m, (c) dl = 50 m. Return stroke
current typical of subsequent strokes (ocean strike and normal incidence).

angle of the oceanland interface in a way similar to the case of

a normal strike.
B. Land Strike: Electromagnetic Fields on the Ground Surface
In this section, we study the effect of the oceanland interface
on the lightning electromagnetic fields at an observation point
located on the ground surface for normal incidence. The three
components of the lightning electromagnetic fields are plotted
in Figs. 911. From these figures, the following conclusions can
be drawn:
1) As it can be seen from Fig. 9, the horizontal component
of the electric field is noticeably affected by the ocean
land interface slope when the observation point is close
to the interface (i.e., dl = 5 m or so). The amplitude of

this component shows a decreasing trend as a function of

slope angle.
2) The vertical electric field (see Fig. 10) and the azimuthal
magnetic field (see Fig. 11) at the ground surface are
not affected by the oceanland interface so that the effect of oceanland interface slope could be reasonably
disregarded for these components, regardless of the distance of the observation point to the interface.
For the case of oblique incidence, the radial and vertical
electric fields on the ground surface (not shown here) appear to
be affected by the oceanland interface slope in a way similar
to the case of normal incidence. The azimuthal magnetic field
on the ground surface associated with an oblique land strike as
shown in Fig. 12 is only slightly affected by the oceanland
interface slope when the observation point is very close to the
ocean.
C. Ocean Strike: Electromagnetic Fields Inside the Land
In this section, we consider the case of a lightning strike to the
ocean. The electromagnetic fields were evaluated at the same
observation points on the land side, at a distance of 200 m from
the lightning channel. The geometry of the problem is shown
in Fig. 1(c). The electromagnetic fields obtained for the case
of normal incidence at the observation point 1 m inside the

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PAKNAHAD et al.: INFLUENCE OF THE SLOPE ANGLE OF THE OCEANLAND MIXED PROPAGATION PATH ON THE LIGHTNING

Fig. 15. Azimuthal component of the magnetic field (H ) at a depth of 1 m

inside the ground. (a) dl = 1 m, (b) dl = 5 m, (c) dl = 50 m. Return stroke
current typical of subsequent strokes (ocean strike and normal incidence).

ground. Results are reported in Figs. 1315. From these figures,

the following conclusions can be drawn:
1) The horizontal electric field is markedly affected by the
oceanland interface slope only for observation points
close to the interface (i.e., dl = 5 m or so). The minimum
peak value for the horizontal electric field occurs for a
vertical oceanland interface with = 90o (see Fig. 13).
2) The vertical electric field can be significantly affected by
the oceanland interface slope only when the observation
point is located in the close vicinity of the shoreline (i.e.,
dl = 5 m or so) as seen from Fig. 14(a) and (b). In this
case, similar to the case of land strike, with decreasing
the slope angle, the vertical electric field increases. In
this case, the minimum peak value is obtained for the
vertical oceanland interface (see Fig. 14). As can be seen
from Fig. 14(a), the slope of the interface may change
the polarity of the vertical E-field: negative for a vertical
interface, and becoming positive for smaller slope angles
(75 and smaller).
3) As seen from Fig. 15, the effect of an inclined oceanland
interface on the azimuthal component of the magnetic
field is negligible for all considered slope angles.
D. Ocean Strike: Electromagnetic Fields on the
Ground Surface
In the final set of simulations, we evaluate the effect of ocean
land interface slope on lightning electromagnetic fields evaluated on the ground surface for the case of a lightning strike to the

Fig. 16. Horizontal component of the electric field (E r ) at the ground surface.
(a) dl = 1 m, (b) dl = 5 m, (c) dl = 50 m. Return stroke current typical of
subsequent strokes (ocean strike and normal incidence).

ocean (for normal incidence). The obtained results for different

components of the lightning electromagnetic fields are reported
in Figs. 1618. Examining these figures, the following remarks
can be made:
1) The horizontal component of the electric field is markedly
affected by the oceanland interface slope for observation
points close to the interface. Similar to the case of a land
strike, as the slope angle increases, the horizontal electric
field decreases so that the minimum peak value is obtained
for a vertical oceanland interface (i.e., = 90).
2) The vertical electric field and the azimuthal magnetic field
components are not affected by the oceanland interface
slope, for all considered distances between the observation
point and the oceanland interface (see Figs. 17 and 18).
IV. CONCLUSION
In this paper, we used the COMSOL Multiphysics for the evaluation of lightning electromagnetic fields in the presence of an
oceanland mixed propagation path having different configurations. Unlike previous studies in which the interface was considered as vertical, the inclined nature of the oceanland interface
was considered in the evaluation of lightning electromagnetic
fields. Simulations were conducted considering lightning strikes
to the ground and to the ocean. The lightning electromagnetic
fields were obtained for observation points inside the ground
and on the ground surface. From the simulations conducted for
the case of a land strike for both normal and oblique incidences,
it was found that:

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8

Fig. 17. Vertical component of the electric field (E z ) at the ground surface.
(a) dl = 1 m, (b) dl = 5 m, (c) dl = 50 m. Return stroke current typical of
subsequent strokes (ocean strike and normal incidence).

1) For underground observation points when they are in the

immediate vicinity of the ocean (i.e., 5 m or so), the horizontal and vertical electric fields are markedly affected by
the oceanland interface slope.
2) The underground azimuthal magnetic field is found to be
slightly affected by the interface slope and only when the
observation point is very close to the interface (i.e., 1 m
or so).
3) For an observation point on the ground surface, the horizontal electric field is found to be markedly affected by the
oceanland slope angle, while the vertical electric field is
not affected by the oceanland slope angle.
4) The azimuthal magnetic field on the ground surface is
found to be very slightly affected by the interface, only for
the case of an oblique incidence and when the observation
point is very close to the oceanland interface (i.e., 1 m
or so).
Qualitatively, similar results have been obtained for the case
of a strike to the ocean for which it was found that the electric field components can be affected by the oceanland interface slope, only for observation points located in the immediate
vicinity of the shoreline. In particular, it was found that the
slope of the interface may change the polarity of the vertical
E-field. The obtained results show that, for observation points
located far from the ocean (i.e., beyond 50 m or so), the effect of
the oceanland interface slope on the lightning electromagnetic
fields becomes negligible.

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Fig. 18. Azimuthal component of the magnetic field (H ) at the ground

surface. (a) dl = 1 m, (b) dl = 5 m, (c) dl = 50 m. Return stroke current
typical of subsequent strokes (ocean strike and normal incidence).

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for
their useful and constructive comments.

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Javad Paknahad (S14) was born in Iran in 1989.

He received the B.S. degree in electrical engineering from the Amirkabir University of Technology
(Tehran Polytechnique), Tafresh, Iran, in 2011, and
the M.S. degree in electrical engineering from Shahid
Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran, in 2013.
He is currently a Research Assistant at the Power
System Laboratory, Shahid Beheshti University, and
a Researcher at the Power Quality Laboratory, Sharif
University of Technology, Tehran. His research interests include power system modeling and simulations,
electromagnetic compatibility and application of electromagnetics in power
system.
Keyhan Sheshyekani (M10SM13) received the
B.S. degree in electrical engineering from Tehran
University, Tehran, Iran, in 2001, and the M.S. and
Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the
Amirkabir University of Technology (Tehran Polytechnique), Tehran, in 2003 and 2008, respectively.
He was with Ecole Polytechnique, Federale de
Lausanne Lausanne, Switzerland, in September 2007
as a Visiting Scientist and later as a Research Assistant. He is currently an Assistant Professor of
electrical engineering at Shahid Beheshti University,
Tehran. He was an Invited Professor at the EPFL from June to September 2014.
His research interests include power system modeling and simulation, smart
grid, microgrids, and electromagnetic compatibility.

This article has been accepted for inclusion in a future issue of this journal. Content is final as presented, with the exception of pagination.
10

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ELECTROMAGNETIC COMPATIBILITY

Mohsen Hamzeh (S09M13) was born in Iran in

1984. He received the B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees from
the University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran, in 2006 and
2008, respectively, and the Ph.D. degree from the
Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, in 2012, all
in electrical engineering.
Since 2010, he has been the Senior Research Engineer at the SGP Company, Tehran. He joined the
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, in 2013, where
he is currently an Assistant Professor. His research
interests include distributed generation, microgrid control and applications of
power electronics in power distribution systems.

Dongshuai Li was born in China in 1987. She received the B.E. degree in lightning protection science and technology from the School of Atmospheric
Physics, Nanjing University of Information Science
and Technology (NUIST), Nanjing, China, in 2010.
She is currently working toward the Ph.D. degree at

NUIST and is a Visiting Student at Ecole

Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland.
Her research interests include electromagnetic
field theory, numerical methods in electromagnetics,
global lightning activity and Schumann resonance.

Farhad Rachidi (M93SM02F10) received the

M.S. degree in electrical engineering and the Ph.D.
degree from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne, Switzerland, in 1986 and 1991, respectively.
He worked at the Power Systems Laboratory of the
same institute until 1996. In 1997, he joined the Lightning Research Laboratory, University of Toronto,
Canada, and from April 1998 until September 1999,
he was with Montena EMC, Switzerland. He is currently a Titular Professor and the Head of the EMC
Laboratory, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. He served as the Vice-Chair
of the European COST Action on the Physics of Lightning Flash and its Effects
(20052009), the Chairman of the 2008 European Electromagnetics International Symposium (EUROEM), and the President of the International Conference on Lightning Protection (20082014). He is presently the Editor-in-Chief
of the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ELECTROMAGNETIC COMPATIBILITY, and the
President of the Swiss National Committee of the International Union of Radio Science. He is the author or coauthor of 130 scientific papers published
in peer-reviewed journals and more than 250 papers presented at international
conferences.
Dr. Rachidi, in 2005, was the recipient of the IEEE Technical Achievement
Award and the CIGRE Technical Committee Award. In 2006, he was awarded
the Blondel Medal from the French Association of Electrical Engineering, Electronics, Information Technology and Communication. In 2014, he was conferred
the title of Honorary Professor of the Xian Jiaotong University in China.