The prolonged gamma ray enhancement and the short radiation burst events observed in thunderstorms at Tien Shan

Abstract

We report the observation results of the hard radiation flashes which accompanied the lightning discharges above the mountains of Northern Tien Shan. Time series of the counting rate intensity, numerical estimations of absolute flux, and energy distribution of accelerated electrons and of (20-2000)keV gamma rays were obtained at the height of 3700m a.s.l., immediately within thunderclouds, and in closest vicinity ($<$100m) to discharge region. Two different kinds of radiation emission events are presented here: a relatively prolonged rise of gamma ray intensity with minute-scale duration (the thunderstorm ground enhancement, TGE) which has preceded a negative field variation, and a short sub-millisecond radiation burst, which accompanied a close lightning discharge in thundercloud. It was revealed also an indication to positron generation in thunderclouds at the time of gamma ray emission, as well as modulation of the neutron counting rate in Tien~Shan neutron monitor which was operating at a (1.5-2)km order distance from the region of lightning development.

References in corpus (11)

• Photonuclear Reactions in Lightning Discovered from Detection of Positrons and Neutrons
• Detection of high-energy gamma rays from winter thunderclouds
• Observation of thundercloud-related gamma rays and neutrons in Tibet
• Long-duration gamma-ray emissions from 2007 and 2008 winter thunderstorms
• Downward Terrestrial Gamma-ray Flash observed in Winter Thunderstorm
• Gamma Ray Glow Observations at 20-km Altitude
• Hardening and termination of long-duration gamma rays detected prior to lightning
• Experimental Evidence of Giant Electron - Gamma Bursts Generated by Extensive Atmospheric Showers in Thunderclouds
• Underground neutron events at Tien Shan and the properties of the $10^{14}-10^{17}$ eV EAS muonic component
• Surrounding material effect on measurement of thunderstorm-related neutrons
• The STM32 microcontroller based pulse intensity registration system for the neutron monitor

Cited by in corpus (2)

• Monitoring of Gamma Radiation Prior to Earthquakes at a Study of Lithosphere-Atmosphere-Ionosphere Coupling in Northern Tien Shan
• Catalog of Gamma-ray Glows during Four Winter Seasons in Japan