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

Shepetov, A. L.; Antonova, V. P.; Kalikulov, O.A.; Kryakunova, O. N.; Karashtin, A. N.; Lutsenko, V.Yu.; Mamina, S.; Mukashev, K. M.; Piscal, V. V.; Ptitsyn, M.O.; Ryabov, V. A.; Sadykov, T. Kh.; Saduev, N.O.; Салихов, Н. М.; Shlyugaev, Yu. V.; Vildanova, L. I.; Zhukov, V. V.; Gurevich, A. V.

doi:10.1016/j.atmosres.2020.105266

Cited by 15 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 89 publications

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“…More detailed description of the detectors applied at the Tien Shan mountain station for monitoring of the radiation background of various kinds in the surrounding environment can be found in [31,34].…”

Section: Experimental Techniquementioning

confidence: 99%

“…The maximum excess of the gamma rays intensity at the peak of the detected outburst was ∼10% above the preceding background level. With account to the area of the scintillator crystal, ∼75 cm 2 , and a ∼(30-50) % registration probability of gamma ray quanta in the tens of keV energy range [31,34], an absolute additional flux of the soft gamma radiation at the peak of the burst can be estimated as…”

Section: The Close Earthquake Event Of December 30 2017mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Monitoring of Gamma Radiation Prior to Earthquakes at a Study of Lithosphere-Atmosphere-Ionosphere Coupling in Northern Tien Shan

Salikhov,

Shepetov,

Pak

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Monitoring of radiation background in the near-surface atmosphere and of gamma rays, geoacoustic emission, and temperature in a borehole at 40 m depth, as well as Doppler sounding on a low-inclined radio pass proceed at the Tien Shan mountain station (3340 m a.s.l.) in Northern Tien Shan with common goal to search for seismogenic effects preceding earthquake. The flux of gamma rays in the borehole varies negligibly between the days, and it is not influenced by precipitations. Characteristic bay-like drops of the gamma ray flux were found (2-8) days before the M5.0-M6.2 earthquakes. In a M4.2 earthquake event with the 5.3 km epicenter distance anomalies were detected (7-10) days before the earthquake in variation of the gamma ray flux, geoacoustic emission, and temperature. Simultaneously with gamma rays, a disturbance was detected in the Doppler shift of the ionospheric signal. Similarly, ionosphere disturbances triggered by the growth of radioactivity in the near-surface atmosphere were found at retrospective analysis of the Doppler shift data acquired after underground nuclear explosions at the Semipalatinsk testing site. This effect is considered from the viewpoint of the lithosphere-atmosphere-ionosphere coupling concept.

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Section: Experimental Techniquementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Close Earthquake Event Of December 30 2017mentioning

confidence: 99%

Monitoring of Gamma Radiation Prior to Earthquakes at a Study of Lithosphere-Atmosphere-Ionosphere Coupling in Northern Tien Shan

Salikhov,

Shepetov,

Pak

et al. 2022

Preprint

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“…"Thunderstorm ground enhancement" events are defined as increased fluxes of electrons, neutrons, gamma rays, or X rays, which are registered by particle detectors located on the Earth's surface during thunderstorms (Chilingarian et al, 2010(Chilingarian et al, , 2011(Chilingarian et al, , 2015(Chilingarian et al, , 2016(Chilingarian et al, , 2019Kudela et al, 2017;Chum et al, 2020). These phenomena are also known as "prolonged radiation bursts" (Tsuchiya et al, 2011), "gamma glows from the ground" (Dwyer et al, 2012), "prolonged gamma ray enhancements" (Shepetov et al, 2021), or "gamma ray bursts of atmospheric origin" (Brunetti et al, 2000). The first conclusive measurements of these "X-ray enhancements" clearly related to thunderstorms were obtained using aeroplanes (Parks et al, 1981), followed by "X-ray increases" on balloons (Eack et al, 1996) and by airborne measurements of "gamma ray glows" (Kelley et al, 2015;Kochkin et al, 2017;Østgaard et al, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The absorption can be minimized by choosing observational places with a short distance between the cloud base and the detector. This is the reason why the TGEs were up to now exclusively observed at high-mountain observatories (Brunetti et al, 2000;Torii et al, 2009;Chilingarian et al, 2011Chilingarian et al, , 2015Chilingarian et al, , 2016Kudela et al, 2017;Chum et al, 2020;Shepetov et al, 2021) or at the sea level during Japanese winter storms with extremely low cloud base altitudes (Tsuchiya et al, 2011;Kuroda et al, 2016). Typically, the TGEs last from 1 min up to 10-15 min, and the radiation mostly does not exceed 10 % of the background values.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Continental thunderstorm ground enhancement observed at an exceptionally low altitude

Kolmašová

Santolı́k²,

Šlegl

et al. 2022

Atmos. Chem. Phys.

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Abstract. Two long-lasting thunderstorm ground enhancement (TGE) events were registered at the Milešovka meteorological observatory in Czechia (50.55∘ N, 13.93∘ E; 837 m altitude) on 23 April 2018, during linearly organized thunderstorms. Two intervals of increased photon counts were detected by a plastic scintillator, respectively lasting 70 and 25 min and reaching 31 % and 48 % above the background radiation levels. Using numerical simulations, we verified that the observed increases in count rates are consistent with the energy spectrum of previously observed TGEs. We investigated the relevant data from a suite of meteorological instruments, a Ka-band cloud radar, an electric field mill, and a broadband electromagnetic receiver, all placed at the Milešovka observatory, in order to analyse the context in which these unique continental TGEs occurred at an exceptionally low altitude. The onset of the TGEs preceded the onset of precipitation by 10 and 3 min, respectively, for the two events. Both this delayed rain arrival and an energy threshold of 6.5 MeV for registered particles clearly exclude the detection the decay products of the radon progeny washout during the TGE intervals. At the same time, the European lightning detection network EUCLID detected numerous predominantly negative intracloud lightning discharges at distances closer than 5 km from the particle detector, while the occurrence of cloud-to-ground discharges was suppressed. The cloud radar recorded presence of graupel below the melting level, and the composition of hydrometeors suggested good conditions for cloud electrification. The observed variations in the near-surface electric field were unusual, with very brief negative-electric-field excursions reaching −20 kV in a quick succession. At the same time, sub-microsecond unipolar pulses emitted by close corona discharges saturated the broadband magnetic loop antenna. All these measurements indicate that a strong lower positive-charge region was present inside the thundercloud. The bottom thundercloud dipole was probably responsible for acceleration of the seed electrons in the air. These seed electrons might originate in the secondary cosmic ray particles but could also come from a high concentration of radon in the air collected during the propagation of the convective system above the uranium-rich soils before the thunderstorms overpassed the Milešovka observatory.

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“…So far cosmic-ray observatories have observed gamma-ray glows; the Aragats Space Environmen- tal Center in Armenia [4,17,18], Yangbajing in Tibet, China [8], Mt. Norikura in Japan [19], Tien Shan in Kazakhstan [20], as well as the weather station at Mt. Fuji in Japan [13].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Catalog of Gamma-ray Glows during Four Winter Seasons in Japan

Wada¹,

Matsumoto²,

Enoto³

et al. 2021

Preprint

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In 2015 the Gamma-Ray Observation of Winter Thunderstorms (GROWTH) collaboration launched a mapping observation campaign for high-energy atmospheric phenomena related to thunderstorms and lightning discharges. This campaign has developed a detection network of gamma rays with up to 10 radiation monitors installed in Kanazawa and Komatsu cities, Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan, where low-charge-center winter thunderstorms frequently occur. During four winter seasons from October 2016 to April 2020, in total 70 gamma-ray glows, minute-lasting bursts of gamma rays originating from thunderclouds, were detected. Their average duration is 58.9 sec. Among the detected events, 77% were observed in nighttime. The gamma-ray glows can be classified into temporally-symmetric, temporally-asymmetric, and lightning-terminated types based on their count-rate histories. An averaged energy spectrum of the gamma-ray glows is well fitted with a power-law function with an exponential cutoff, whose photon index, cutoff energy, and flux are 0.613 ± 0.009, 4.68 ± 0.04 MeV, and (1.013 ± 0.003) × 10 −5 erg cm −2 s −1 (0.2-20.0 MeV), respectively. The present paper provides the first catalog of gamma-ray glows and their statistical analysis detected during winter thunderstorms in the Kanazawa and Komatsu areas.

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

Cited by 15 publications

References 89 publications

Monitoring of Gamma Radiation Prior to Earthquakes at a Study of Lithosphere-Atmosphere-Ionosphere Coupling in Northern Tien Shan

Monitoring of Gamma Radiation Prior to Earthquakes at a Study of Lithosphere-Atmosphere-Ionosphere Coupling in Northern Tien Shan

Continental thunderstorm ground enhancement observed at an exceptionally low altitude

Catalog of Gamma-ray Glows during Four Winter Seasons in Japan

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