Thunderstorms as the probable reason of high background neutron fluxes at L&lt;1.2

Bratolyubova-Tsulukidze, L. S.; Grachev, E. A.; Grigoryan, O. R.; Куницын, В. Е.; Kuzhevskij, B. M.; Lysakov, D.S.; Nechaev, O. Yu.; Usanova, Maria

doi:10.1016/j.asr.2003.03.044

Cited by 26 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…Excesses of neutrons, in the form of discrete bursts, have also been observed from orbit with instruments on the MIR space station and the Kolibri-2000 satellite, with a longitude distribution peaking over Africa and the Pacific (Bratolyubova-Tsulukidze et al 2004). Individual storms were not identified with the neutron bursts in this work, and the MIR events appear to have a latitude distribution less equatorial than that of lightning.…”

Section: Observations Of Neutrons From Thunderstormsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…They concluded that a downward-directed TGF of normal luminosity at an altitude of 5 km or lower might reproduce the neutron observations. However, they also found that the neutron flux in Earth orbit from an upward TGF was far too small to explain the events seen by Bratolyubova-Tsulukidze et al (2004). Babich et al (2010b) estimated neutron production for runaway avalanches in the high-field volume of a thunderstorm.…”

Section: Interpretation Of Neutron Observationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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High-Energy Atmospheric Physics: Terrestrial Gamma-Ray Flashes and Related Phenomena

2012

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It is now well established that both thunderclouds and lightning routinely emit x-rays and gamma-rays. These emissions appear over wide timescales, ranging from submicrosecond bursts of x-rays associated with lightning leaders, to sub-millisecond bursts of gamma-rays seen in space called terrestrial gamma-ray flashes, to minute long glows from thunderclouds seen on the ground and in or near the cloud by aircraft and balloons. In particular, terrestrial gamma-ray flashes (TGFs), which are thought to be emitted by thunderclouds, are so bright that they sometimes saturate detectors on spacecraft hundreds of kilometers away. These TGFs also generate energetic secondary electrons and positrons that are detected by spacecraft in the inner magnetosphere. It is generally believed that these x-ray and gamma-ray emissions are generated, via bremsstrahlung, by energetic runaway electrons that are accelerated by electric fields in the atmosphere. In this paper, we review this newly emerging field of High-Energy Atmospheric Physics, including the production of runaway electrons, the production and propagation of energetic radiation, and the effects of both on atmospheric electrodynamics.

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Section: Observations Of Neutrons From Thunderstormsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Interpretation Of Neutron Observationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

High-Energy Atmospheric Physics: Terrestrial Gamma-Ray Flashes and Related Phenomena

2012

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“…They estimated a production of 10 7 –10 10 neutrons per lightning discharge, but they did not make a hypothesis on the production mechanism of these particles. Further measurements were performed [ Shyam and Kaushik , ; Bratolyubova‐Tsulukidze , ; Tsuchiya et al , ; Kozlov et al , , and references therein] enhancing the present knowledge about these phenomena. However, Babich et al [, , ] have shown that the counters in these experiments have been sensitive also to other ionizing emissions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Grigoriev et al [] developed simulations of neutron propagation through the atmosphere up to orbital altitudes in order to compare with the observations of Bratolyubova‐Tsulukidze []. They used GEANT4 to simulate the neutron propagation in order to estimate the possibility to obtain the neutron flux at orbital altitudes generated by photonuclear reactions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…They simulated the neutrons exiting isotropically from a point of 10 km initial altitude, an upward neutron beam with an initial altitude of 20 km and distributed over a 20° cone aperture, and a downward neutron beam with an initial altitude of 5 km, also distributed over a 20° cone aperture. Their simulations agree with ground observations such as the observations performed by Shah et al but were not consistent with the spaceborne observations of Bratolyubova‐Tsulukidze [].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Production mechanisms of leptons, photons, and hadrons and their possible feedback close to lightning leaders

2017

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It has been discussed that lightning flashes emit high‐energy electrons, positrons, photons, and neutrons with single energies of several tens of MeV. In the first part of this paper we study the absorption of neutron beams in the atmosphere. We initiate neutron beams of initial energies of 350 keV, 10 MeV, and 20 MeV at source altitudes of 4 km and 16 km upward and downward and see that in all these cases neutrons reach ground altitudes and that the cross‐section areas extend to several km2. We estimate that for terrestrial gamma‐ray flashes approximately between 10 and 2000 neutrons per ms and m2 are possibly detectable at ground, at 6 km, or at 500 km altitude. In the second part of the paper we discuss a feedback model involving the generation and motion of electrons, positrons, neutrons, protons, and photons close to the vicinity of lightning leaders. In contrast to other feedback models, we do not consider large‐scale thundercloud fields but enhanced fields of lightning leaders. We launch different photon and electron beams upward at 4 km altitude. We present the spatial and energy distribution of leptons, hadrons, and photons after different times and see that leptons, hadrons, and photons with energies of at least 40 MeV are produced. Because of their high rest mass hadrons are measurable on a longer time scale than leptons and photons. The feedback mechanism together with the field enhancement by lightning leaders yields particle energies even above 40 MeV measurable at satellite altitudes.

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Numerical analysis of 2010 high‐mountain (Tien‐Shan) experiment on observations of thunderstorm‐related low‐energy neutron emissions

Babich¹,

Bochkov²,

Dwyer

et al. 2013

JGR Space Physics

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[1] The high-mountain experiment in a thunderstorm atmosphere, in which "extraordinary high flux of low-energy neutrons" was detected, is analyzed. Due to the lack of data on the radiation source, we do not analyze directly measured absolute count rates. Instead, we address the experimental configuration, namely, simultaneous measurements by shielded and unshielded helium counters, which allow a comparison of relative count rates and, thus, verifying the species of the detected radiation. Results of Monte Carlo simulations of neutron transport executed without aprioristic assumptions, using only data on the experimental configuration, have raised strong doubts as to whether the detected increases of the count rates can be attributed to neutrons. Results of simulations allowing for the neutron transport in atmosphere from distant (100-500 m) photoneutron source with spectrum in the range 0-20.1 MeV produced by relativistic runaway electron avalanche bremsstrahlung demonstrate that ratios R of the count rates of shielded and unshielded counters below 1 keV are manyfold higher than the ratios R exp ≈ 0.34-1.06 of the measured count rates. In the total range 0-20.1 MeV, the R magnitudes vary from 0.14 to 0.84 depending on the distance to the neutron source. Results of simulations of γ rays transport executed without aprioristic assumptions demonstrate that, most likely, hard γ rays with energies ε γ > 1 MeV were detected. We note that in thunderstorm environment, a selection is required of neutrons and γ rays, for which the time-of-flight technique is the most adequate.Citation: Babich, L. P., E. Bochkov, J. R. Dwyer, I. M. Kutsyk, and A. N. Zalyalov (2013), Numerical analysis of 2010 high-mountain (Tien-Shan) experiment on observations of thunderstorm-related low-energy neutron emissions,

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Thunderstorms as the probable reason of high background neutron fluxes at L<1.2

Cited by 26 publications

References 8 publications

High-Energy Atmospheric Physics: Terrestrial Gamma-Ray Flashes and Related Phenomena

High-Energy Atmospheric Physics: Terrestrial Gamma-Ray Flashes and Related Phenomena

Production mechanisms of leptons, photons, and hadrons and their possible feedback close to lightning leaders

Numerical analysis of 2010 high‐mountain (Tien‐Shan) experiment on observations of thunderstorm‐related low‐energy neutron emissions

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