Catalog of 2017 Thunderstorm Ground Enhancement (TGE) events observed on Aragats

Chilingarian, A.; Mkrtchyan, H.; Karapetyan, G.; Chilingaryan, S.; Sargsyan, B.; Arestakesyan, A.

doi:10.1038/s41598-019-42786-7

Cited by 27 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…In Refs. [1,2], we describe a new phenomenon in highenergy atmospheric physics, namely, a flux of electrons and gamma rays lasting for several hours that correlates with a thunderstorm and smoothly decays after cessation of a storm. Such enhancement of the particle flux in the thunderous atmosphere was well documented during the last two decades.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Origin of enhanced gamma radiation in thunderclouds

Chilingarian

Hovsepyan

Elbekian

et al. 2019

Phys. Rev. Research

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Natural gamma radiation (NGR), one of the major geophysical parameters directly connected with cloud electrification and lightning initiation, is highly enhanced during thunderstorms. At low energies below 3 MeV, the enhancement of NGR is due to natural isotope radiation, and for energies up to 50 MeV, it is due to the operation of the newly discovered electron accelerators in the thunderclouds. For the first time, we present a comprehensive model of the enhanced fluxes of radiation incident on the earth's surface during thunderstorms. In addition to the already explained minute-long fluxes of high-energy electrons and gamma rays from relativistic runaway electron avalanches (RREA), we clarify also the origin of hour-long isotropic fluxes of low-energy gamma rays from the Rn-222 progenies. Also, as a direct evidence of RREA, we present photographs of optical emission during the development of electron-gamma ray cascades in the atmosphere. Natural radioactivity is a source of continuous exposure of human beings to radiation. Radiation protection of living organisms requires an understanding of all sources and possible ways of enhancement of the radiation levels that can double for several hours in the energy domain of hundreds of keV. Therefore individual irradiation doses can be exceeded during thunderstorms. The models used for the forecasting of thunderstorms and other severe atmospheric phenomena need an accurate account of the ionizing radiation in the atmosphere. The airglows can influence the operation of optical, fluorescence, and atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes and fluorescence detectors.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Origin of enhanced gamma radiation in thunderclouds

Chilingarian

Hovsepyan

Elbekian

et al. 2019

Phys. Rev. Research

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“…Chilingarian et al [9] published a catalog of gammaray glows/TGEs detected at Mt. Aragats in Armenia in 2017.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Electrons accelerated to a relativistic energy in an electric field emit bremsstrahlung photons by colliding with atmospheric atoms. The energy spectrum of gamma-ray glows typically extend up to tens of MeV [5,6], and their observed duration ranges from seconds to tens of minutes [5,[7][8][9].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Catalog of Gamma-ray Glows during Four Winter Seasons in Japan

Wada¹,

Matsumoto²,

Enoto³

et al. 2021

Preprint

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In 2015 the Gamma-Ray Observation of Winter Thunderstorms (GROWTH) collaboration launched a mapping observation campaign for high-energy atmospheric phenomena related to thunderstorms and lightning discharges. This campaign has developed a detection network of gamma rays with up to 10 radiation monitors installed in Kanazawa and Komatsu cities, Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan, where low-charge-center winter thunderstorms frequently occur. During four winter seasons from October 2016 to April 2020, in total 70 gamma-ray glows, minute-lasting bursts of gamma rays originating from thunderclouds, were detected. Their average duration is 58.9 sec. Among the detected events, 77% were observed in nighttime. The gamma-ray glows can be classified into temporally-symmetric, temporally-asymmetric, and lightning-terminated types based on their count-rate histories. An averaged energy spectrum of the gamma-ray glows is well fitted with a power-law function with an exponential cutoff, whose photon index, cutoff energy, and flux are 0.613 ± 0.009, 4.68 ± 0.04 MeV, and (1.013 ± 0.003) × 10 −5 erg cm −2 s −1 (0.2-20.0 MeV), respectively. The present paper provides the first catalog of gamma-ray glows and their statistical analysis detected during winter thunderstorms in the Kanazawa and Komatsu areas.

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“…When they are detected by ground-based facilities, they are also referred to as thunderstorm ground enhancements (TGEs) [15]. In particular, the observatory at Mount Aragats in Armenia has observed the largest number of TGEs by cosmic-ray monitors [15][16][17]. Gamma-ray glows are sometimes quenched by lightning discharges [4-6, 10, 18, 19].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Thundercloud Project: Exploring high-energy phenomena in thundercloud and lightning

Yuasa

Wada

Enoto

et al. 2020

Preprint

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We designed, developed, and deployed a distributed sensor network aiming at observing high-energy ionizing radiation, primarily gamma rays, from winter thunderclouds and lightning in coastal areas of Japan. Starting in 2015, we have installed, in total, more than 15 units of ground-based detector system in Ishikawa Prefecture and Niigata Prefecture, and accumulated 551 days of observation time in four winter seasons from late 2015 to early 2019. In this period, our system recorded 51 gamma-ray radiation events from thundercloud and lightning. Highlights of science results obtained from this unprecedented amount of data include the discovery of photonuclear reaction in lightning which produces neutrons and positrons along with gamma rays, and deeper insights into the life cycle of a particle-acceleration and gamma-ray-emitting region in a thundercloud. The present paper reviews objective, methodology, and results of our experiment, with a stress on its instrumentation.

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Catalog of 2017 Thunderstorm Ground Enhancement (TGE) events observed on Aragats

Cited by 27 publications

References 40 publications

Origin of enhanced gamma radiation in thunderclouds

Origin of enhanced gamma radiation in thunderclouds

Catalog of Gamma-ray Glows during Four Winter Seasons in Japan

Thundercloud Project: Exploring high-energy phenomena in thundercloud and lightning

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