Amplified radio emission from cosmic ray air showers   in thunderstorms

Buitink, S.; Apel, W. D.; Asch, T.; Badea, F.; Bähren, L.; Bekk, K.; Bercuci, A.; Bertaina, M.; Biermann, P. L.; Blümer, J.; Bozdog, H.; Brâncuş, I.M.; Brüggemann, M.; Buchholz, P.; Butcher, H. R.; Чиавасса, А.; Cossavella, F.; Daumiller, K.; Pierro, F. Di; Döll, P.; Engel, R.; Falcke, H.; Gemmeke, H.; Ghia, P. L.; Glasstetter, R.; Grupen, C.; Haungs, A.; Heck, D.; Hörandel, J. R.; Horneffer, A.; Huege, T.; Kampert, K.‐H.; Kolotaev, Y.; Krömer, O.; Kuijpers, J.; Lafèbre, S.; Mathes, H. J.; Mayer, H.J.; Meurer, C.; Milke, J.; Mitrica, B.; Morello, C.; Navarra, G.; Nehls, S.; Nigl, A.; Obenland, R.; Oehlschläger, J.; Ostapchenko, S.; Over, S.; Petcu, M.; Petrović, J.; Pierog, T.; Plewnia, S.; Rebel, H.; Risse, A.; Roth, M.; Schieler, H.; Sima, O.; Singh, K.; Stümpert, M.; Toma, G.; Trinchero, G.; Ulrich, H.; Buren, J. van; Walkowiak, W.; Weindl, A.; Wochele, J.; Zabierowski, J.; Zensus, J. A.; Zimmermann, D.

doi:10.1051/0004-6361:20066006

Cited by 60 publications

(56 citation statements)

References 19 publications

(28 reference statements)

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“…On the right hand side, an electric field which is perpendicular to the shower direction is shown which results in a stronger deflection of the electrons and positrons (from Ref. Buitink, 2007). The increase in some of the traces starting at À1.75 ls is assigned to detector noise from the KASCADE particle detectors.…”

Section: Influence Of Atmospheric Electric Fields On Radio Detection mentioning

confidence: 98%

“…An additional or strongly varying atmospheric electric field can lead to different strengths and geometries of the radio emission from charged particles, in particular secondaries from a cosmic-ray air shower in the Earth's atmosphere (Buitink, 2007;Buitink et al, 2010). In Fig.…”

Section: Influence Of Atmospheric Electric Fields On Radio Detection mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It serves as a clear indication that strong atmospheric electric fields during thunderstorms have an influence on the radio emission of cosmic ray air showers and might more likely amplify the signal than attenuate it. For smaller atmospheric electrical fields there might be no big effect (Buitink, 2007) but recent investigations have shown that strong atmospheric electric fields without thunderstorm that can occur in rain clouds also have an influence on the radio emission but the number of events recorded during such conditions are even lower (Ender et al, 2009). …”

Section: Influence Of Atmospheric Electric Fields On Radio Detection mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Thunderstorm observations by air-shower radio antenna arrays

Apel

Arteaga

Bähren

et al. 2011

Advances in Space Research

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Relativistic, charged particles present in extensive air showers (EAS) lead to a coherent emission of radio pulses which are measured to identify the shower initiating high-energy cosmic rays. Especially during thunderstorms, there are additional strong electric fields in the atmosphere, which can lead to further multiplication and acceleration of the charged particles and thus have influence on the form and strength of the radio emission. For a reliable energy reconstruction of the primary cosmic ray by means of the measured radio signal it is very important to understand how electric fields affect the radio emission. In addition, lightning strikes are a prominent source of broadband radio emissions that are visible over very long distances. This, on the one hand, causes difficulties in the detection of the much lower signal of the air shower. On the other hand the recorded signals can be used to study features of the lightning development. The detection of cosmic rays via the radio emission and the influence of strong electric fields on this detection technique is investigated with the LOPES experiment in Karlsruhe, Germany. The important question if a lightning is initiated by the high electron density given at the maximum of a high-energy cosmic-ray air shower is also investigated, but could not be answered by LOPES. But, these investigations exhibit the capabilities of EAS radio antenna arrays for lightning studies. We report about the studies of LOPES measured radio signals of air showers taken during thunderstorms and give a short outlook to new measurements dedicated to search for correlations of lightning and cosmic rays.

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Section: Influence Of Atmospheric Electric Fields On Radio Detection mentioning

confidence: 98%

Section: Influence Of Atmospheric Electric Fields On Radio Detection mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Influence Of Atmospheric Electric Fields On Radio Detection mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Thunderstorm observations by air-shower radio antenna arrays

Apel

Arteaga

Bähren

et al. 2011

Advances in Space Research

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“…Using LOPES data recorded during various weather types it was shown that this amplification of the radio pulse only occurs during thunderstorm conditions [11]. In another study it was shown that the arrival direction reconstructed with radio data and particle detector data can differ by a few degrees during thunderstorms [12].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Simulation of radio emission from air showers in atmospheric electric fields

Buitink

Huege

Falcke

et al. 2010

Astroparticle Physics

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We study the effect of atmospheric electric fields on the radio pulse emitted by cosmic ray air showers. Under fair weather conditions the dominant part of the radio emission is driven by the geomagnetic field. When the shower charges are accelerated and deflected in an electric field additional radiation is emitted. We simulate this effect with the Monte Carlo code REAS2, using CORSIKA-simulated showers as input. In both codes a routine has been implemented that treats the effect of the electric field on the shower particles. We find that the radio pulse is significantly altered in background fields of the order of ∼ 100 V/cm and higher. Practically, this means that air showers passing through thunderstorms emit radio pulses that are not a reliable measure for the shower energy. Under other weather circumstances significant electric field effects are expected to occur rarely, but nimbostratus clouds can harbor fields that are large enough. In general, the contribution of the electric field to the radio pulse has polarization properties that are different from the geomagnetic pulse. In order to filter out radio pulses that have been affected by electric field effects, radio air shower experiments should keep weather information and perform full polarization measurements of the radio signal.

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“…Atmospheric electric fields: Not only magnetic, but also electric fields in the atmosphere can accelerate the charged particles of the air shower and lead to an additional radio emission. During thunderstorm conditions (E atm ∼ 10000 V/m), this emission can be even stronger than the geomagnetic one [44]. It has still a measurable effect when the atmospheric electric field at ground reaches a strength of a few 1000 V/m [31].…”

Section: Variation Of the Dipole Strength Of The Air Shower [40]mentioning

confidence: 99%

Instruments and Methods for the Radio Detection of High Energy Cosmic Rays

Schröder¹

2012

Springer Theses

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Instruments and Methods for the Radio Detection of High Energy Cosmic RaysCosmic rays at energies above 10 15 eV cannot be measured directly due to the low flux. Instead, the properties of the primary cosmic ray particles (arrival direction, energy, mass) have to be reconstructed from measurements of secondary particles forming an air shower. For this, digital radio antenna arrays, like LOPES at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), are a relatively new instrument. The radio emission mainly originates from the deflection of secondary air shower electrons and positrons in the Earth's magnetic field. The radio technique aims at achieving a similar quality in the reconstruction of air shower parameters as the established Cherenkov or fluorescence light detection methods, which in contrast to the radio technique are limited to dark, moonless nights.The present studies aim to advance the air shower radio detection in technological aspects and analysis methods. The developments are mainly applied to LOPES, but also provide a useful set of tools, which will soon be applied on the analysis of first AERA measurements. AERA is a next generation digital radio array at the Pierre Auger Observatory in Argentina. Moreover, this thesis reflects the recent progress in the understanding of the radio emission by air showers. The main results of the studies are:• A new method for time calibration with a reference beacon has been developed.It allows a time resolution of ∼ 1 ns even with large antenna arrays. This is necessary for digital radio interferometry which improves the signal-to-noise ratio and the reconstruction accuracy of the primary particle properties. This method is essential for the measurement of cosmic rays with LOPES, and is going to be applied at AERA.• A per-event comparison of lateral distributions measured with LOPES and REAS3 simulations reflects a significantly improved understanding of the radio emission mechanisms. For the first time a Monte Carlo simulation of the radio emission by air showers can in average reproduce measured data. A detailed investigation of systematic effects was performed to accurately reconstruct LOPES lateral distributions. In particular, a method has been developed to appropriately treat the influence of radio noise on measured lateral distributions.• It is shown that a conical radio wavefront fits LOPES measurements and REAS3 simulations better than a spherical wavefront, which up to now has been assumed for LOPES beamforming analyses. Furthermore, the atmospheric depth of the shower maximum X max can be reconstructed by determining the opening angle of the conical wavefront. However, due to the small lateral extension of LOPES of about 200 m and the high radio background at KIT, the measurement uncertainty (∆X max ≈ 200 g/cm 2 ) is too large for a per-event reconstruction of the primary mass. This will improve at AERA, but could not be examined in detail because of a delay in the construction. • Eine neue Methode zur Zeitkalibration mit einen Rerefenzsender (Beaco...

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Amplified radio emission from cosmic ray air showers in thunderstorms

Cited by 60 publications

References 19 publications

Thunderstorm observations by air-shower radio antenna arrays

Thunderstorm observations by air-shower radio antenna arrays

Simulation of radio emission from air showers in atmospheric electric fields

Instruments and Methods for the Radio Detection of High Energy Cosmic Rays

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