Significant enhancements of secondary cosmic rays and electric field at the high mountain peak of Lomnický Štít in High Tatras during thunderstorms

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F61389005%3A_____%2F20%3A00522381" target="_blank" >RIV/61389005:_____/20:00522381 - isvavai.cz</a>

Alternative codes found

RIV/68378289:_____/20:00522381

Result on the web

<a href="https://earth-planets-space.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s40623-020-01155-9#Abs1" target="_blank" >https://earth-planets-space.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s40623-020-01155-9#Abs1</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40623-020-01155-9" target="_blank" >10.1186/s40623-020-01155-9</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Significant enhancements of secondary cosmic rays and electric field at the high mountain peak of Lomnický Štít in High Tatras during thunderstorms

Original language description

High electric fields that occur in thunderstorm clouds in the Earth’s atmosphere might accelerate energetic charged particles produced by cosmic rays. Such energetic particles, especially electrons, can cause additional ionization as they are multiplied and thus form avalanche of relativistic electrons. These relativistic electrons emit Bremsstrahlung in the X- or gamma-ray spectral ranges as they lose their kinetic energy via collisions. Thunderstorm ground enhancements (TGEs) of secondary cosmic ray fluxes recorded at the top of a sharp rocky mountain of Lomnický Štít in High Tatras (2634 m, Slovak Republic) are compared with simultaneous measurements of electric field at the mountain top and on its slope at the observatory of Skalnaté Pleso (1780 m). Results of measurements performed from May to September in 2017 and from May to October in 2018 are presented. The cosmic ray flux is measured by Space Environment Viewing and Analysis Network (SEVAN) and by neutron monitor with 1-s resolution. The TGEs that persisted usually several minutes were mainly detected in the SEVAN channel 1 which has the lowest energy threshold, about 7–8 MeV. A statistical analysis shows that these enhancements usually occurred (not only) during large values of vertical, upward-pointing electric fields measured just above the detector. It is shown that the measurement of electric field at Skalnaté Pleso, distant about 1.86 km from the mountain top is also partly correlated with the enhancements and can provide additional useful information about the distance or dimension of charge structure and dynamics of electric field, especially on short time scales. The enhancements usually did not exceed several tens of percent of background values. However, events that exceeded the background values several times were also recorded. The most extreme event exceeded the background values about 215 times. This event was also detected by other SEVAN channels and by the neutron monitor (~ 130% enhancement), which indicates a possibility of photonuclear reactions. The enhancements were often terminated by a nearby lightning.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

J_imp - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database

CEP classification

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OECD FORD branch

10509 - Meteorology and atmospheric sciences

Project

Result was created during the realization of more than one project. More information in the Projects tab.

Continuities

I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace

Publication year

2020

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Name of the periodical

Earth, Planets and Space

ISSN

1880-5981

e-ISSN

—

Volume of the periodical

72

Issue of the periodical within the volume

1

Country of publishing house

DE - GERMANY

Number of pages

20

Pages from-to

28

UT code for WoS article

000521040500002

EID of the result in the Scopus database

2-s2.0-85080990912