The horizontal profile of the atmospheric electric fields as measured during thunderstorms by the network of NaI spectrometers located on the slopes of Mt. Aragats

The International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA), find out more paper The horizontal profile of the atmospheric electric fields as measured during thunderstorms by the network of NaI spectrometers located on the slopes of Mt. Aragats A. Chilingarian1, G. Hovsepyan1, T. Karapetyan1, L. Kozliner1, S. Chilingaryan1, D. Pokhsraryan1 and B. Sargsyan1 Published 6 October 2022 • © 2022 IOP Publishing Ltd and Sissa Medialab Journal of Instrumentation, Volume 17, October 2022 Citation A. Chilingarian et al 2022 JINST 17 P10011 DOI 10.1088/1748-0221/17/10/P10011 Download Article PDF References 21 Total downloads Article has an altmetric score of 1 Turn on MathJax Get permission to re-use this article Share this article Share this content via email Share on Facebook (opens new window) Share on Twitter (opens new window) Share on Mendeley (opens new window) Article information Abstract The shape and evolution of the energy spectra of the thunderstorm ground enhancement (TGE) electrons and gamma rays shed light on the origin of TGEs, on the relationship between modification of the cosmic ray electron energy spectra (MOS) and relativistic runaway electron avalanche (RREA) processes, on the energy of the seed electrons, and on the strength and elongation of an atmospheric electric field. The network of large NaI spectrometers on slopes of Mt. Aragats 24/7 monitored secondary particle fluxes from 2013 until now, highly contributed to the understanding of the ways how RREAs are developed in the atmosphere. In 2022 we enlarge the NaI network with 2 remote detectors located at altitudes 2000 and 1700 m, and 13 and 16 km apart from the Aragats station to investigate the horizontal profile of the atmospheric electric field. We found, that the previously estimated values of the regions in the atmosphere, where RREA emerges, were highly underestimated. In the present report, we describe the NaI particle detector\u27s network and present the first results of the experiment demonstrating that the particle fluxes from the atmospheric electron accelerators can cover large areas on the earth\u27s (up to tens of km$^{2}$)

Thunderstorm ground enhancements: Multivariate analysis of 12 years of observations

We present a survey of more than a half-thousand thunderstorm ground enhancements (TGEs, fluxes of electrons, and gamma rays associated with thunderstorms) registered in 2008–2022 at Aragats space environmental center (ASEC). We analyze correlations between various measured parameters characterizing TGEs measured on Aragats. Two special cases of TGE events are considered: one, terminated by nearby lightning flashes, and another one—with a sufficiently large ratio of electrons to gamma rays. On the basis of the analysis, we summarize the most important results obtained during 12 years of TGE study, which include the following statements: (i) TGEs originated from multiple relativistic runaway electron avalanches starting with seed electrons from the ambient population of cosmic rays, which enter an extended region of the electric field with strength exceeding the critical value; (ii) quite frequently, TGEs occur prior to lightning flashes and are terminated by them; (iii) the energy spectra of avalanche electrons observed on Aragats indicate that the strong electric field region can extend very low above the ground covering a large area on the earth’s surface