Gamma-ray 'glows' are long duration (seconds to tens of minutes) X-ray and gamma-ray emission coming from thunderclouds. Measurements suggest the presence of relativistic runaway electron avalanches (RREA), the same process underlying terrestrial gamma-ray flashes. Here we demonstrate that glows are relatively a common phenomena near the tops of thunderstorms, when compared with events such as terrestrial gamma-ray flashes. Examining the strongest glow measured by the airborne detector for energetic emissions, we show that this glow is measured near the end of a downward RREA, consistent with occurring between the upper positive charge layer and the negative screening layer above it. The glow discharges the upper positive layer by Z9.6 mA, strong enough to be an important charging mechanism of the storm. For this glow, the gamma-ray flux observed is close to the value at which relativistic feedback processes become important, with an avalanche multiplication factor of 4,500.
We report on the first search for Terrestrial Gamma‐ray Flashes (TGFs) from altitudes where they are thought to be produced. The Airborne Detector for Energetic Lightning Emissions (ADELE), an array of gamma‐ray detectors, was flown near the tops of Florida thunderstorms in August/September 2009. The plane passed within 10 km horizontal distance of 1213 lightning discharges and only once detected a TGF. If these discharges had produced TGFs of the same intensity as those seen from space, every one should have been seen by ADELE. Separate and significant nondetections are established for intracloud lightning, negative cloud‐to‐ground lightning, and narrow bipolar events. We conclude that TGFs are not a primary triggering mechanism for lightning. We estimate the TGF‐to‐flash ratio to be on the order of 10−2 to 10−3 and show that TGF intensities cannot follow the well‐known power‐law distribution seen in earthquakes and solar flares, due to our limits on the presence of faint events.
Energetic Lightning Emissions (ADELE), an array of six gamma-ray detectors, detected a brief burst of gamma rays while flying aboard a Gulfstream V jet near two active thunderstorm cells. The duration and spectral characteristics of the event are consistent with the terrestrial gamma ray flashes (TGFs) seen by instruments in low Earth orbit. A long-duration, complex +IC flash was taking place in the nearer cell at the same time, at a distance of ∼10 km from the plane. The sferics that are probably associated with this flash extended over 54 ms and included several ULF pulses corresponding to charge moment changes of up to 30 C km, this value being in the lower half of the range of sferics associated with TGFs seen from space. Monte Carlo simulations of gamma ray propagation in the Earth's atmosphere show that a TGF of normal intensity would, at this distance, have produced a gamma ray signal in ADELE of approximately the size and spectrum that was actually observed. We conclude that this was the first detection of a TGF from an aircraft. We show that because of the distance, ADELE's directional and spectral capabilities could not strongly constrain the source altitude of the TGF but that such constraints would be possible for TGFs detected at closer range.
We searched for gamma‐ray emission from lightning using the Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI) satellite by identifying times when RHESSI was near over 2 million lightning discharges localized by the Worldwide Lightning Location Network (WWLLN). We then stacked together the gamma‐ray arrival times relative to the sferic times, correcting for light propagation time to the satellite. The resulting stacked gamma‐ray time profile is sensitive to an average level of gamma‐ray emission per lightning discharge far lower than what can be recognized above background for a single terrestrial gamma‐ray flash (TGF). The summed signal from presumed small, previously unknown TGFs simultaneous with WWLLN discharges is remarkably weak: for the region from 0 to 300 km beneath RHESSI's footprint, (6.2 ± 3.8) × 10−3 detector counts/discharge are measured, as opposed to a typical range of 12–50 detector counts for TGFs identified solely from the gamma‐ray signal. Under the assumption of a broken power law differential distribution of TGF intensities, we find that the index must harden dramatically or cut off just below the sensitivity limit of current satellites and that for most scenarios less than 1% of lightning can produce a TGF that belongs anywhere in the same distribution as those that are observable. For the minority of scenarios where more than a few percent of flashes produce a TGF, most of these “TGFs” are less than 10−4 of the luminosity of the faintest RHESSI TGFs and therefore closer to the luminosity of lightning stepped leaders. The rarity of TGFs holds not only for TGFs simultaneous with the sferic observed by WWLLN but also for any time within 10 ms of the sferic, allowing (for example) for the possibility that different events within the upward propagation of a negative leader in positive intracloud lightning triggered the TGF and WWLLN's detection.
We report the observation of two isolated clouds of positrons inside an active thunderstorm. These observations were made by the Airborne Detector for Energetic Lightning Emissions (ADELE), an array of six gamma-ray detectors, which flew on a Gulfstream V jet aircraft through the top of an active thunderstorm in August 2009. ADELE recorded two 511 keV gamma-ray count rate enhancements, 35 s apart, each lasting approximately 0.2 s. The enhancements, which were approximately a factor of 12 above background, were both accompanied by electrical activity as measured by a flat-plate antenna on the underside of the aircraft. The energy spectra were consistent with a source mostly composed of positron annihilation gamma rays, with a prominent 511 keV line clearly visible in the data. Model fits to the data suggest that the aircraft was briefly immersed in clouds of positrons, more than a kilometre across. It is not clear how the positron clouds were created within the thunderstorm, but it is possible they were caused by the presence of the aircraft in the electrified environment.
On 23 October 2015 at ~1732 UTC, the Airborne Detector for Energetic Lightning Emissions (ADELE) flew through the eyewall of Hurricane Patricia aboard National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Hurricane Hunter WP‐3D Orion, observing the first terrestrial gamma‐ray flash (TGF) ever seen in that context, and the first ever viewed from behind the forward direction of the main TGF gamma‐ray burst. ADELE measured 184 counts of ionizing radiation within 150 μs, coincident with the detection of a nearby lightning flash. Lightning characteristics inferred from the associated radio signal and comparison of the gamma‐ray energy spectrum to simulations suggests that this is the first observation of a reverse beam of positrons predicted by the leading TGF production model, relativistic runaway electron avalanches. This paper presents the first experimental evidence of a previously predicted second component of gamma‐ray emission from TGFs. The brightest emission, commonly observed from orbit, is from the relativistic runaway electron avalanche bremsstrahlung; the second, fainter component reported here is from the bremsstrahlung of positrons propagating in the reverse direction. This reverse gamma‐ray beam penetrates to low enough altitudes to allow ground‐based detection of typical upward TGFs from mountain observatories.
The Gamma-Ray Imager/Polarimeter for Solar flares (GRIPS) instrument is a balloon-borne telescope designed to study solar-flare particle acceleration and transport. We describe GRIPS's first Antarctic long-duration flight in January 2016 and report preliminary calibration and science results.Electron and ion dynamics, particle abundances and the ambient plasma conditions in solar flares can be understood by examining hard X-ray (HXR) and gamma-ray emission (20 keV to 10 MeV). Enhanced imaging, spectroscopy and polarimetry of flare emissions in this energy range are needed to study particle acceleration and transport questions. The GRIPS instrument is specifically designed to answer questions including: What causes the spatial separation between energetic electrons producing hard X-rays and energetic ions producing gamma-ray lines? How anisotropic are the relativistic electrons, and why can they dominate in the corona? How do the compositions of accelerated and ambient material vary with space and time, and why? GRIPS's key technological improvements over the current solar state of the art at HXR/gamma-ray energies, the Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI), include 3D position-sensitive germanium detectors (3D-GeDs) and a single-grid modulation collimator, the multi-pitch rotating modulator (MPRM). The 3D-GeDs have spectral FWHM resolution of a few hundred keV and spatial resolution <1 mm 3 . For photons that Compton scatter, usually 150 keV, the energy deposition sites can be tracked, providing polarization measurements as well as enhanced background reduction through Compton imaging. Each of GRIPS's detectors has 298 electrode strips read out with ASIC/FPGA electronics. In GRIPS's energy range, indirect imaging methods provide higher resolution than focusing optics or Compton imaging techniques. The MPRM gridimaging system has a single-grid design which provides twice the throughput of a bi-grid imaging system like RHESSI. The grid is composed of 2.5 cm deep tungsten-copper slats, and quasi-continuous FWHM angular coverage from 12.5-162 arcsecs are achieved by varying the slit pitch between 1-13 mm. This angular resolution is capable of imaging the separate magnetic loop footpoint emissions in a variety of flare sizes. In comparison, RHESSI's 35-arcsec resolution at similar energies makes the footpoints resolvable in only the largest flares.
This paper reports the results of a study of the e + e − → H 0 A 0 process at √ s = 1 TeV performed on fully simulated and reconstructed events. The estimated accuracies on the heavy Higgs boson masses, widths and decay branching fractions are discussed in relation to the study of Supersymmetric Dark Matter.
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