The bursts of high energy events observed by the telescope array surface detector

Abbasi, Rasha; Abe, M.; Abu‐Zayyad, T.; Allen, M.; Anderson, R. J.; Azuma, R.; Barcikowski, E.; Belz, J. W.; Bergman, Douglas; Blake, S. A.; Cady, R.; Cheon, B. G.; Chiba, J.; Chikawa, M.; Fujii, Toshihiro; Fukushima, M.; Goto, Toru; Hanlon, W.; Hayashi, Y.; Hayashida, N.; Hibino, K.; Honda, K.; Ikeda, D.; Inoue, N.; Ishii, Takaaki; Ishimori, R.; Ito, Hirotaka; Ivanov, D.; Jui, C.; Kadota, K.; Kakimoto, F.; Kalashev, O.; Kasahara, K.; Kawai, H.; Kawakami, S.; Kawana, S.; Kawata, K.; Kido, E.; Kim, H.B.; Kim, J.H.; Kishigami, S.; Kitamura, S.; Kitamura, Yoshihisa; Kuzmin, V.; Kwon, Y. J.; Lan, J.; Lundquist, Jon Paul; Machida, K.; Martens, K.; Matsuda, Takeshi; Matsuyama, T.; Matthews, J. N.; Minamino, M.; Mukai, K.; Myers, I.; Nagasawa, K.; Nagataki, Shigehiro; Nakamura, Tôru; Nonaka, T.; Nozato, A.; Ogio, S.; Ogura, J.; Ohnishi, M.; Ohoka, H.; Oki, K.; Okuda, Takeshi; Ono, M.; Onogi, R.; Oshima, A.; Ozawa, S.; Park, I.H.; Пширков, М. С.; Rodriguez, D.; Рубцов, Г.; Ryu, Dongsu; Sagawa, H.; Saito, Koji; Saito, Yasunori; Sakaki, N.; Sakurai, N.; Sampson, Anthony; Scott, L. M.; Sekino, K.; Shah, P. D.; Shibata, F.; Shibata, Tadashi; Shimodaira, Hidetoshi; Shin, B. K.; Shin, Han-Back; Smith, J. D.; Sokolsky, P.; Springer, R. W.; Stokes, B. T.; Stratton, S. R.; Stroman, T. A.; Suzawa, T.; Takamura, M.; Takeda, M.; Takeishi, R.; Taketa, A.; Takita, M.; Tameda, Y.; Tanaka, Hidekazu; Tanaka, K.; Tanaka, M.; Thomas, S. B.; Thomson, G. B.; Tinyakov, P.; Tkachev, I.; Tokuno, H.; Tomida, T.; Troitsky, S.; Tsunesada, Y.; Tsutsumi, K.; Uchihori, Y.; Udo, S.; Urban, Federico R.; Vasiloff, G.; Wong, Tony; Yamane, R.; Yamaoka, H.; Yamazaki, K.; Yang, J.; Yashiro, K.; Yoneda, Y.; Yoshida, Shigeru; Yoshii, H.; Zollinger, R.; Zundel, Z.

doi:10.1016/j.physleta.2017.06.022

Cited by 56 publications

(169 citation statements)

References 9 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

150

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Short‐duration gamma ray bursts associated with lightning discharges, called “downward terrestrial gamma ray flashes,” and evidence for photonuclear reactions induced by such bursts have been detected at ground level (Abbasi et al, ; Bowers et al, ; Enoto et al, ). However, neither such gamma ray bursts nor evidence for photonuclear reactions at the glow termination were detected in the present case, despite the IC leader development having passed near the observation site.…”

Section: Analysis and Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Termination of Electron Acceleration in Thundercloud by Intracloud/Intercloud Discharge

Wada

Bowers

Enoto

et al. 2018

Geophysical Research Letters

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

An on‐ground observation program for high‐energy atmospheric phenomena in winter thunderstorms along the Japan Sea has been performed via measurements of gamma ray radiation, atmospheric electric field, and low‐frequency radio band. On 11 February 2017, the radiation detectors recorded gamma ray emission lasting for 75 s, and then abruptly terminated with a nearby lightning discharge. The gamma ray spectrum extended up to 20 MeV and was reproduced by a cutoff power law model with a photon index of 1.36−0.04+0.03, being consistent with Bremsstrahlung radiation from a thundercloud (known as a gamma‐ray glow or a thunderstorm ground enhancement). The low‐frequency radio monitors, installed ∼50 km away from the gamma ray observation site recorded leader development of an intracloud/intercloud discharge spreading over ∼60 km area with a ∼300‐ms duration. The timing of the gamma ray termination coincided with the moment when the leader development of the intracloud/intercloud discharge passed 0.7 km horizontally away from the radiation monitors. The intracloud/intercloud discharge started ∼15 km away from the gamma ray observation site. Therefore, the glow was terminated by the leader development, while it did not trigger the lightning discharge in the present case.

show abstract

Section: Analysis and Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Termination of Electron Acceleration in Thundercloud by Intracloud/Intercloud Discharge

Wada

Bowers

Enoto

et al. 2018

Geophysical Research Letters

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…A simulated terrestrial gamma ray flash initiated at origin and 3‐km altitude with a beam width of 20° and a tilt of 30°, as it would be detected by an ideal detector setup similar to that of Abbasi et al (, ). Each point represents one detector.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While the observations by Dwyer et al (), Dwyer et al (), Enoto et al (), and Hare et al () were made by several detectors simultaneously, the total number of photons received was limited, and the events are few and far between. The number of ground observations of gamma ray flashes from thunderstorms increased significantly as unusual observations correlated to lightning activity were reported from the Telescope Array (TA) in Utah, USA (Abbasi et al, , ). The TA is a cosmic ray observatory which has an instrument of more than 500 scintillation detectors in a square grid with 1.2‐km spacing called the Telescope Array Surface Detector (TASD).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Constraining Downward Terrestrial Gamma Ray Flashes Using Ground‐Based Particle Detector Arrays

Berge

Célestin

2019

Geophysical Research Letters

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Until recently, there were only a few ground‐based observations of terrestrial gamma ray flashes (TGFs). Since the Telescope Array in Utah, USA, started reporting detections of high‐energy particles correlated with lightning, their number has greatly increased. Ground observations of TGFs represent a valuable addition to space‐borne detectors. The proximity to the event and the ability to observe an event with several detectors may reveal new information about the production of TGFs. In this paper, we study downward directed TGFs using Monte Carlo modeling of photon transport through the atmosphere. The Telescope Array‐observed pulses of gamma rays spread over periods of a few hundred microseconds. We predict such structures to be observable at satellite altitude, given sufficient time resolution. Additionally, we demonstrate how various source spectra would lead to different number of photons reaching ground, which impacts the conclusions one can draw using observational data.

show abstract

“…While astronomical satellites in near‐Earth orbits routinely detect TGFs beamed upward, on‐ground facilities have also detected similar phenomena but beamed downward, called downward TGFs. They have been observed with rocket‐triggered (Dwyer et al, ; Hare et al, ) and natural lightning discharges (Abbasi et al, , ; Colalillo, ; Dwyer et al, ; Tran et al, ). In particular, downward TGFs during winter thunderstorms are sometimes bright enough to produce a number of neutrons via photonuclear reactions (Babich, , ) close to the ground; thus, the neutrons and their byproducts can be observed by sea level measurements (Bowers et al, ; Enoto et al, ; Wada et al, , ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

High Peak‐Current Lightning Discharges Associated With Downward Terrestrial Gamma‐Ray Flashes

et al. 2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

During 2017–2018 winter operation of the Gamma‐Ray Observation of Winter Thunderclouds experiment in Japan, two downward terrestrial gamma‐ray flashes (TGFs) that triggered atmospheric photonuclear reactions were detected. They took place during winter thunderstorms on 5 December 2017 and 9 January 2018 at Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan. Each event coincided with an intracloud/intercloud discharge, which had a negative‐polarity peak current higher than 150 kA. Their radio waveforms in the low‐frequency band are categorized as a distinct lightning type called “energetic in‐cloud pulse” (EIP). Negative‐polarity EIPs have been previously suggested to be highly associated with downward TGFs, and the present observations provide evidence of the correlation between them for the first time. Furthermore, both of the downward TGFs followed “gamma‐ray glows,” minute‐lasting high‐energy emissions from thunderclouds. It is suggested that the negative EIPs took place with downward propagating negative leaders or upward positive ones developed in highly electrified regions responsible for the gamma‐ray glows.

show abstract

The bursts of high energy events observed by the telescope array surface detector

Cited by 56 publications

References 9 publications

Termination of Electron Acceleration in Thundercloud by Intracloud/Intercloud Discharge

Termination of Electron Acceleration in Thundercloud by Intracloud/Intercloud Discharge

Constraining Downward Terrestrial Gamma Ray Flashes Using Ground‐Based Particle Detector Arrays

High Peak‐Current Lightning Discharges Associated With Downward Terrestrial Gamma‐Ray Flashes

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About