Source of prolonged bursts of high-energy gamma rays detected in thunderstorm atmosphere in Japan at the coastal area of the Sea of Japan and on high mountaintop

Details Source of prolonged bursts of high-energy gamma rays detected in thunderstorm atmosphere in Japan at the coastal area of the Sea of Japan and on high mountaintop Source of prolonged bursts of high-energy gamma rays detected in thunderstorm atmosphere in Japan at the coastal area of the Sea of Japan and on high mountaintop

Sep 2010

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010jgra..11509317b&link_type=abstract

Journal of Geophysical Research, Volume 115, Issue A9, CiteID A09317

Physics

2

Atmospheric Processes: Atmospheric Electricity, Atmospheric Processes: Theoretical Modeling, Atmospheric Processes: Radiative Processes, Electromagnetics: Plasmas

Scientific paper

To analyze whether relativistic runaway electron avalanches (RREAs) are capable of developing inside tropospheric thunderclouds, we carried out numerical simulations in real atmosphere of hard γ ray bursts with a duration of 1 min observed in Japan from thunderclouds at sea level and on high mountaintop, assuming that the bursts originated from a point source of bremsstrahlung produced by RREA. Portions and on-ground fluence of γ rays reaching the sea level were calculated for various source altitudes h. For fitting the observations at the coast of the Sea of Japan, the source should be localized at altitudes h = 0.5-2 km. The on-ground γ ray spectra calculated for these source altitudes are close to the spectrum observed at the coast and the spectrum of terrestrial γ ray flashes observed in the near space. The numbers of γ photons emitted by the source at h = 0.5-2 km fitting the γ ray fluence measured at the coast are in the range of 1012-1015. The required RREA enhancement fits the limitation imposed by the relativistic feedback by Dwyer (2003a, 2005, 2007). Both emission and on-ground γ spectra calculated for the air layer of 70 g cm-2 are close to the γ-burst spectrum observed at the mountaintop. We numerically predicted the characteristics of neutron pulse that most likely accompanied the γ bursts. The proximity of the emission and observed spectra prove that the γ source was close to the top. As a whole, the results of the simulations testify that RREAs could be responsible for the observed γ bursts and, consequently, that they are capable of developing inside tropospheric thunderclouds.

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