TT12A:
High-Energy Radiation from Thunderstorms
TT12A:
High-Energy Radiation from Thunderstorms
High-Energy Radiation from Thunderstorms
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Session ID#: 46063
Session Description:
Thundercloud regions with the highest electric fields can glow continuously with gamma radiation; lightning leaders produce bursts of x-rays; and when the two meet, enormously bright radiation bursts called Terrestrial Gamma-ray Flashes (TGFs) can be formed, either beamed upwards into space or downwards toward the ground. In the heart of these extraordinary events, which accompany a small fraction of lightning flashes, the radiation dose may be high enough to endanger people aboard aircraft on rare occasions. TGFs have recently been shown to produce a flood of neutrons and radioactive nuclei as well, and to launch beams of electrons and positrons into Earth's magnetosphere. I will survey the history, physics, status, and future of this unusual field of study, which brings together electrical engineers, meteorologists, and astrophysicists.
Primary Presenter: David Miles Smith, University of California, Department of Physics and Santa Cruz Institute for Particle Physics, Santa Cruz, United States
Cross-Listed:
- A - Atmospheric Sciences
- AE - Atmospheric and Space Electricity
- SM - SPA-Magnetospheric Physics
Index Terms:
2716 Energetic particles: precipitating [MAGNETOSPHERIC PHYSICS]
3304 Atmospheric electricity [ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSES]
3324 Lightning [ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSES]
3394 Instruments and techniques [ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSES]
Abstracts Submitted to this Session:
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