Year: 2025
Type: conference-paper
Abstract: Downward Terrestrial Gamma-ray Flashes (TGFs) are sub-millisecond bursts of MeV gamma rays produced in thunderclouds. According to the Relativistic Runaway Electron Avalanche model, gamma rays are produced, via bremsstrahlung, from electron cascades activated by a relativistic “seed” electron. It is not clear what mechanism is responsible for the acceleration of electrons to relativistic energies in electric discharges. To better understand the acceleration sites and the TGF production mechanisms, it is critically important to identify the TGF source position and geometry in the atmosphere and to study the gamma emission characteristics. The Surface Detector of the Pierre Auger Observatory, with its 1600 water-Cherenkov detectors very sensitive to high-energy photons and with a very fine time-sampling, is a valuable instrument to study downward TGFs. The possibility to analyze the radiation emission in detail led to the observation of the first TGFs with an asymmetric azimuthal structure, suggesting a complex source different from the initially hypothesized downward beam. We report on these observations and the new perspectives which may open with the incorporation of new instruments at the Auger site to study lightning development alongside gamma emission, and the increasingly detailed data provided by satellites and global lightning networks.
DOI: 10.22323/1.501.0223
Authors: Roberta Colalillo, Adila Abdul Halim, Pedro Abreu, Marco Aglietta, Ingomar Allekotte, Kevin Almeida Cheminant, Alejandro Almela, Roberto Aloisio, Jaime Alvarez-Muñiz, Antonio Ambrosone, Juan Ammerman Yebra, Gioacchino Alex Anastasi, Luis A. Anchordoqui, Belén Andrada, Luciana Andrade Dourado, Sofia Andringa, Lorenzo Apollonio, Carla Aramo, Enrico Arnone, Juan Carlos Arteaga Velazquez, Pedro Assis, Gualberto Avila, Emanuele Avocone, Alena Bakalova, Felicia Barbato, Adriel Bartz Mocellin, Jose A. Bellido, Corinne Berat, Mario E. Bertaina, Marta Bianciotto, Peter L. Biermann, Virginia Binet, Kathrin Bismark, Teresa Bister, Jonathan Biteau, Jiri Blazek, Johannes Blümer, Martina Bohacova, Denise Boncioli, Carla Bonifazi, Luan Bonneau Arbeletche, Nataliia Borodai, Jeffrey Brack, P. Gabriel Brichetto Orchera, Florian Lukas Briechle, Antonio Bueno, Stijn Buitink, Mario Buscemi, Max Büsken, Anthony Bwembya, Karen S. Caballero-Mora, Sergio Cabana-Freire, Lorenzo Caccianiga, Federico Campuzano, Jorge Caraça-Valente, Rossella Caruso, Antonella Castellina, Fernando Catalani, Gabriella Cataldi, Lorenzo Cazon, Marcos Cerda, Berenika Čermáková, Alessandro Cermenati, Jose Augusto Chinellato, Jiří Chudoba, Ladislav Chytka, Roger W Clay, Agustín Cobos Cerutti, Rúben Conceição, Giovanni Consolati, Matteo Conte, Fabio Convenga, Diego Correia dos Santos, Pedro J. Costa, Corbin Covault, Markus Cristinziani, Carlo Salvattore Cruz Sanchez, Sergio Dasso, Kai Daumiller, Bruce R. Dawson, Rogerio M. de Almeida, Eric-Teunis de Boone, Beatriz de Errico, Joaquín de Jesús, Sijbrand J. de Jong, João de Mello Neto, Ivan De Mitri, Jaime de Oliveira, Danelise de Oliveira Franco, Francesco de Palma, Vitor de Souza, Emanuele De Vito, Antonino Del Popolo, Olivier Deligny, Nikolas Denner, Luca Deval, Armando di Matteo, Carola Dobrigkeit, Juan Carlos D'Olivo, Luis Miguel Domingues Mendes, Qader Dorosti, Joao dos Anjos, Rita Cassia dos Anjos, Jan Ebr, Fiona H. Ellwanger, Ralph Engel, Italo Epicoco, Martin Erdmann, Alberto Etchegoyen, Carmelo Evoli, Heino Falcke, Glennys R. Farrar, Anderson Fauth, Tim Fehler, Fridtjof Feldbusch, Alexandra Fernandes, Mateo Fernandez, Brian Fick, Juan Manuel Figueira, Paul Filip, Andrej Filipcic, Thomas Fitoussi, Benjamin Flaggs, Tomáš Fodran, Antonio Franco, Milton Freitas, Toshihiro Fujii, Alan Fuster, Cristina Galea, Beatriz Garcia, Chloé Gaudu, Piera Luisa Ghia, Ugo GIACCARI, Fabian Gobbi, Fernando Gollan, Geraldina Golup, Mariano Gómez Berisso, Primo F. Gómez Vitale, Juan Pablo Gongora, Juan Manuel Gonzalez, Nicolas Martin Gonzalez, Dariusz Gora, Alessio Gorgi, Marvin Gottowik, Fausto Guarino, Germano Guedes, Lukas Gülzow, Steffen Hahn, Petr Hamal, Matías Rolf Hampel, Patricia María Hansen, Violet M. Harvey, Andreas Haungs, Thomas Hebbeker, Carlos Hojvat, Jörg Hörandel, Pavel Horvath, Miroslav Hrabovsky, Tim Huege, Antonio Insolia, Paula Gina Isar, Mohamed Ismaiel, Petr Janecek, Vlastimil Jilek, Karl-Heinz Kampert, Bianca Keilhauer, Abha Khakurdikar, Varada Varma Kizakke Covilakam, Hans Klages, Matthias Kleifges, Jelena Köhler, Frederik Krieger, Margita Kubátová, Norbert Kunka, Bruno L. Lago, Niklas Langner, Nicolas Leal, Marcelo Augusto Leigui de Oliveira, Yago Lema-Capeans, Antoine Letessier-Selvon, Isabelle Lhenry-Yvon, Luis LOPES, Jon Paul Lundquist, Manuela Mallamaci, Dusan Mandat, Paul Mantsch, Federico Maria Mariani, Analisa Gabriela Mariazzi, Ioana Codrina Maris, Giovanni Marsella, Daniele Martello, Sara Martinelli, Miguel A. Martins, Hermann-Josef Mathes, James Matthews, Giorgio Matthiae, Eric William Mayotte, Sonja Mayotte, Peter Mazur, Gustavo Medina-Tanco, Janning Meinert, Diego Melo, Alexander Menshikov, Carmen Merx, Stanislav Michal, Maria Isabel Micheletti, Lino Miramonti, Megha Mogarkar, Silvia Mollerach, François Montanet, Leonel Morejon, Katharine Mulrey, Roberto Mussa, Wilson M. Namasaka, Shefali Negi, Lukas Nellen, Khoa Nguyen, Gabriela Nicora, Marcus Niechciol, Dave Nitz, Dalibor Nosek, Alexander Novikov, Vladimír Novotný, Libor Nozka, Achille Nucita, Luis A. Nunez, José Ochoa, Cainã Oliveira, Leo Östman, Miroslav Palatka, Juan Pallotta, Shayoni Panja, Gonzalo Parente, Therese Paulsen, Jannis Pawlowsky, Miroslav Pech, Jan Pękala, Rodrigo Pelayo, Vincent Pelgrims, Luiz Augusto Pereira, Edyvania Emily Pereira Martins, Carmina Pérez Bertolli, Lorenzo Perrone, Sergio Petrera, Camilla Petrucci, Tanguy Pierog, Mário Pimenta, Manuel Platino, Bjarni Pont, Mohsen Pourmohammad Shahvar, Paolo Privitera, Chaitanya Priyadarshi, Michael Prouza, Krzysztof Pytel, Sven Querchfeld, Julian Rautenberg, Diego Ravignani, João Vitor Reginatto Akim, Alex Reuzki, Jan Ridky, Felix Riehn, Markus Risse, Vincenzo Rizi, Ezequiel Rodriguez, Gonzalo Rodriguez Fernandez, Jorge Rubén Rodriguez Rojo, Simone Rossoni, Markus Roth, Esteban Roulet, Adrian Rovero, Alexandra Saftoiu, Mohit Saharan, Francesco Salamida, Humberto Ibarguen Salazar, Gaetano Salina, Pranav Sampathkumar, Nicolas San Martin, Jose Sanabria Gomez, Federico Andrés Sánchez, Edivaldo Moura Santos, Eva Santos, Fred Sarazin, Raul Sarmento, Ricardo Sato, Pierpaolo Savina, Viviana Scherini, Harald Schieler, Martin Schimassek, Michael Schimp, David Schmidt, Olaf Scholten, Harm Schoorlemmer, Petr Schovanek, Frank G. Schröder, Josina Schulte, Tobias Schulz, Sergio J Sciutto, Marina Scornavacche, Adrian Sedoski, Alberto Segreto, Srijan Sehgal, Shima Ujjani Shivashankara, Guenter Sigl, Katarína Simkova, Frank Simon, Radomir Smida, Paul Sommers, Ruben Squartini, Maximilian Stadelmaier, Samo Stanič, Jaroslaw Stasielak, Patrick Stassi, Simon Strähnz, Maximilian Straub, Tiina Suomijarvi, A. Daniel Supanitsky, Zuzana Svozilikova, Karolina Syrokvas, Zbigniew Szadkowski, Fedor Tairli, Matteo Tambone, Alex Tapia, Carla Taricco, Charles Timmermans, Olena Tkachenko, Petr Tobiska, Carlos J. Todero Peixoto, Bernardo Tomé, Andres Travaini, Petr Travnicek, Matias Jorge Tueros, Michael Unger, Rukije Uzeiroska, Lukáš Vaclavek, Martin Vacula, Igor Vaiman, Jose F. Valdés Galicia, Laura Valore, Pim van Dillen, Enrique Varela, Veronica Vasickova, Adriana Vásquez-Ramírez, Darko Veberic, Indira D. Vergara Quispe, Stef Verpoest, Valerio Verzi, Jakub Vicha, Jacco Vink, Serguei Vorobiov, Jhansi Bhavani Vuta, Clara Keiko Oliveira Watanabe, Alan Watson, Andreas Weindl, Melanie Weitz, Lawrence Wiencke, Henryk Wilczyński, Brian Wundheiler, Baobiao Yue, Alexey Yushkov, Enrique Zas, Danilo Zavrtanik, Marko Zavrtanik, Joseph Dwyer, John Ortberg, David Smith
Institutions: University of Naples Federico II, LIP - Laboratory of Instrumentation and Experimental Particle Physics, Osservatorio Astrofisico di Torino, National Institute for Astrophysics, University of Lisbon, Instituto Superior Técnico, University of Catania, University of Milan, University of Turin, Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo, University of L'Aquila, Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Napoli, Institute of Nuclear Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences, Universidad Autónoma de Chiapas, Politecnico di Milano, University of Salento, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Pierre Auger Observatory, University of Palermo, University of Rome Tor Vergata, University of New Hampshire, Instituto Politécnico Nacional, University of Łódź, Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla, Istituto di Astrofisica Spaziale e Fisica cosmica di Palermo, University of California, Santa Cruz
Language: English
Subfield: Astronomy and Astrophysics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Award: G7378882120
OpenAlex ID: W4414420458