Enhanced detection of terrestrial gamma-ray flashes by AGILE

Abstract

At the end of March 2015 the onboard software configuration of the AGILE satellite was modified in order to disable the veto signal of the anticoincidence shield for the minicalorimeter instrument. The motivation for such a change was the understanding that the dead time induced by the anticoincidence prevented the detection of a large fraction of Terrestrial Gamma-Ray Flashes (TGFs). The configuration change was highly successful resulting in an increase of one order of magnitude in TGF detection rate. As expected, the largest fraction of the new events has short duration ($<100\mu \mathrm{s}$), and part of them has simultaneous association with lightning sferics detected by the World Wide Lightning Location Network (WWLLN). The new configuration provides the largest TGF detection rate surface density (TGFs/$\mathrm{k}{\mathrm{m}}^2$/year) to date, opening prospects for improved correlation studies with lightning and atmospheric parameters on short spatial and temporal scales along the equatorial region.

References in corpus (2)

• Design and construction of the Mini-Calorimeter of the AGILE satellite
• Compton scattering in terrestrial gamma-ray flashes detected with the Fermi gamma-ray burst monitor

Cited by in corpus (11)

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• Gamma-Ray and X-Ray Observations of the Periodic-Repeater FRB 180916 During Active Phases
• Constraints to do realistic modeling of the electric field ahead of the tip of a lightning leader
• On the High-Energy Spectral Component and Fine Time Structure of Terrestrial Gamma Ray Flashes
• A new population of terrestrial gamma-ray flashes in the RHESSI data
• Radio emissions from double RHESSI TGFs
• AGILE Observations of Fast Radio Bursts
• The AGILE Data Center and its Legacy
• On the timing between terrestrial gamma ray flashes, radio atmospherics, and optical lightning emission
• Characterisation of a CeBr${}_3$(LB) detector for space application
• Detection of terrestrial gamma-ray flashes with the AGILE/MCAL