Location accuracy is all important index for evaluation of locating networks lightning monitoring systems, and positioning algorithm is directly related to the results of the location accuracy. According to the existed problems of traditional ellipsoid location’s iterative algorithms such as they are easy to diverge, this paper proposed using modified Fruit Fly Optimization Algorithm (MFOA) in lightning location calculation and gave the methods to modify the FOA and used MFOA for lightning location——getting the lightning point coordinate finally by closing the distance error between the lightning point and the detection point. This paper simulated and verified the MFOA; and then calculated and analyzed the lightning location through the modified algorithm. The results showed that: MFOA can overcome the problems of the traditional location algorithm such as they are easy to diverge and FOA is easy to fall into local minima, and MFOA converges faster; the distance between the lightning point obtained by MFOA and the actual lightning point is 362.4m, which meets lightning position error and verifies the effectiveness of the proposed method, so MFOA offers a new algorithm for lightning location.
