TY - JOUR
T1 - High-precision time study of gamma-ray bursts during thunderstorms
AU - Kuriyama, E.
AU - Masubuchi, M.
AU - Koshikawa, N.
AU - Iwashita, R.
AU - Omata, A.
AU - Kanda, T.
AU - Kataoka, J.
AU - Tsurumi, M.
AU - Diniz, G.
AU - Enoto, T.
AU - Wada, Y.
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was supported by Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) ERATO Grant Number JPMJER2102 and Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Kakenhi Grant Number 20K20923 , Japan.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Elsevier B.V.
PY - 2023/1/1
Y1 - 2023/1/1
N2 - Strong gamma-ray bursts initiated by lightning discharges and thunderclouds have been observed since the 1980s. However, the process of these emissions is under debate. Observed gamma-ray bursts are classified into two types according to their duration. One is a short-duration burst, called a terrestrial gamma-ray flash (TGF), and the other is a gamma-ray glow, which has a longer duration. The observation of a TGF is challenging because of its extremely brief duration (less than a second). As a result, the physics behind TGF is relatively poorly understood compared to classical long-duration bursts, the gamma-ray glows. To study short gamma-ray bursts, we developed a new detector system with time precision of 10 ns and focused on low-energy (E< 100 keV) measurement. We began our observations in November 2019 in a mountain area over 300 m above sea level and approximately 25 km from the Japan Sea. In this paper, we report the observations leading to the detection of the three types of interesting gamma-ray bursts, some of which were associated with lightning discharges. These results suggest the importance of measurements with high-time resolution and low-energy photons for understanding gamma-ray bursts related to thunderclouds. Moreover, we also report our first observation of gamma-ray imaging of a gamma-ray glow detected in the 2021–2022 season.
AB - Strong gamma-ray bursts initiated by lightning discharges and thunderclouds have been observed since the 1980s. However, the process of these emissions is under debate. Observed gamma-ray bursts are classified into two types according to their duration. One is a short-duration burst, called a terrestrial gamma-ray flash (TGF), and the other is a gamma-ray glow, which has a longer duration. The observation of a TGF is challenging because of its extremely brief duration (less than a second). As a result, the physics behind TGF is relatively poorly understood compared to classical long-duration bursts, the gamma-ray glows. To study short gamma-ray bursts, we developed a new detector system with time precision of 10 ns and focused on low-energy (E< 100 keV) measurement. We began our observations in November 2019 in a mountain area over 300 m above sea level and approximately 25 km from the Japan Sea. In this paper, we report the observations leading to the detection of the three types of interesting gamma-ray bursts, some of which were associated with lightning discharges. These results suggest the importance of measurements with high-time resolution and low-energy photons for understanding gamma-ray bursts related to thunderclouds. Moreover, we also report our first observation of gamma-ray imaging of a gamma-ray glow detected in the 2021–2022 season.
KW - Gamma-ray glows
KW - Gamma-ray imaging
KW - Lightning discharge
KW - TGFs
KW - Thunderstorm
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U2 - 10.1016/j.nima.2022.167515
DO - 10.1016/j.nima.2022.167515
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85145355088
SN - 0168-9002
VL - 1045
JO - Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment
JF - Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment
M1 - 167515
ER -
