Abstract: A test system capable of simultaneously measuring the induced currents in the cable shield and inner conductor was developed to study the coupling problem of the cable on the ground under the natural lightning condition. The results show that: Waveforms of cable induced currents in the cable shield at different positions are basically the same, but the amplitudes are different which shows that the spatial distribution of the induced currents is not uniform. The time-domain waveforms and frequency spectrums of the induced currents measured in the inner conductor and cable shield are alike and the energy is concentrated between 1 kHz and 1 MHz. The induced voltage waveforms in the inner conductor of the positive and negative cloud-to-ground lightning are all single-pulse waveforms with a duration of 10-49 μs. The amplitude and their mean value of the cable induced voltages of the positive cloud-to-ground lightning are greater than the corresponding results for negative cloud-to-ground lightning, indicating that the cable coupling effect of positive cloud-to-ground lightning is greater than that of the negative cloud-to-ground lightning. The cable induced voltage amplitude and magnetic flux density of different lightning processes have small correlation and the same lightning process is basically linear. The cable induced voltage waveform duration time, the half-peak width, the range of the 10%-90% rise time and their average value of the positive cloud-to-ground lightning are all greater than those of the negative cloud-to-ground lightning.