TARANIS XGRE and IDEE detection capability of terrestrial gamma-ray flashes and associated electron beams

Abstract

Abstract. With a launch expected in 2018, the TARANIS microsatellite is dedicated to the study of transient phenomena observed in association with thunderstorms. On board the spacecraft, XGRE and IDEE are two instruments dedicated to studying terrestrial gamma-ray flashes (TGFs) and associated terrestrial electron beams (TEBs). XGRE can detect electrons (energy range: 1 to 10 MeV) and X-and gammarays (energy range: 20 keV to 10 MeV) with a very high counting capability (about 10 million counts per second) and the ability to discriminate one type of particle from another. The IDEE instrument is focused on electrons in the 80 keV to 4 MeV energy range, with the ability to estimate their pitch angles.Monte Carlo simulations of the TARANIS instruments, using a preliminary model of the spacecraft, allow sensitive area estimates for both instruments. This leads to an averaged effective area of 425 cm 2 for XGRE, used to detect Xand gamma-rays from TGFs, and the combination of XGRE and IDEE gives an average effective area of 255 cm 2 which can be used to detect electrons/positrons from TEBs. We then compare these performances to RHESSI, AGILE and Fermi GBM, using data extracted from literature for the TGF case and with the help of Monte Carlo simulations of their mass models for the TEB case.Combining this data with the help of the MC-PEPTITA Monte Carlo simulations of TGF propagation in the atmosphere, we build a self-consistent model of the TGF and TEB detection rates of RHESSI, AGILE and Fermi. It can then be used to estimate that TARANIS should detect about 200 TGFs yr −1 and 25 TEBs yr −1 .

Theoretical Problems Underlying Sprite Observations of the Planned Taranis Satellite Mission

“…It is able to quantify the total energy of the event, altitude of the generation together with its time and geographic coordinates. The instrument will also be able to distinguish X-ray and gamma-ray photons from energetic electrons/positrons (Sarria et al, 2017). Instrument for Detection of Energetic Electrons Instrument for detection of energetic electrons (IDEE) will provide high-resolution spectra of energetic electrons (80 keV to 5 MeV) and their pitch angles.…”

“…It is focused on lightning-induced electron precipitations (LEPs) and terrestrial electron beams (TEBs) associated with TGFs. It was designed to detect even very short transients (<10 ms) with small fluence (Sarria et al, 2017). Multi Experiment Interface Controller Equipment All the data will be interfaced by the Multi Experiment Interface Controller equipment (MEXIC), a device responsible for providing the energy supply and receiving, managing, and transferring the data.…”

Evaluation of Monte Carlo tools for high-energy atmospheric physics II: relativistic runaway electron avalanches

“…TGFs also produce bursts of electron and positrons Briggs et al, 2011;Sarria et al, 2016) that follow the geomagnetic field lines into space and show longer durations. Two space missions specifically designed to study TGFs and related phenomena will provide new observations in the near future: ASIM (Atmosphere-Space Interaction Monitor) (Neubert et al, 2006), successfully launched in April 2018, and TARANIS (Tool for the Analysis of Radiation from lightning and Sprites) (Lefeuvre et al, 2009;Sarria et al, 2017), which is to be launched at the end of 2019.…”

“…Cold runaway could happen in the streamer phase (Moss et al, 2006;Li et al, 2009;Chanrion and Neubert, 2010) or leader phase (Celestin and Pasko, 2011;Celestin et al, 2012;Chanrion et al, 2014;Köhn et al, 2014Köhn et al, , 2017Köhn and Ebert, 2015) of a transient discharge, explaining the high-energy electron seeding that will evolve to RREAs and produce γ rays by bremsstrahlung emission from the accelerated electrons. The cold runaway mechanism may be further investigated with laboratory experiments, in high-voltage and pulsed plasma technology, and may be linked to the not fully understood X-ray emissions that have been observed during nanosecond pulsed discharge and the formation of long sparks Shao et al, 2011;Kochkin et al, 2016, and references therein), with different possible production mechanisms that were proposed and tested using analytical modelling (Cooray et al, 2009) and computer simulations (Ihaddadene and Celestin, 2015;Luque, 2017;Lehtinen and Østgaard, 2018). Alternatively, the relativistic feedback discharge model is also proposed to explain TGF production using large-scale and high-potential electric fields (Dwyer, 2012), where the RREA initial seeding may be provided by cosmic-ray secondaries, background radiation or cold runaway (Dwyer, 2008).…”

“…Examples of general purpose codes that were used are Geant4 (e.g. Østgaard et al, 2008;Carlson et al, 2010;Bowers et al, 2017;Sarria et al, 2015Sarria et al, , 2017Skeltved et al, 2014) Sarria et al (2015), among others. Rutjes et al (2016) presented in their Sect.…”