Confining the angular distribution of TGF emission

Author

Gjesteland, Thomas ; Østgaard, Nikolai ; Collier, Andrew B. ; Carlson, B.E. ; Cohen, M.B. ; Lehtinen, N.G.

Author_Institution

Phys. & Technol., Univ. of Bergen, Bergen, Norway

fYear

2011

fDate

13-20 Aug. 2011

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

4

Abstract

We present the first constraints on the TGF emission cone, based on accurately geolocated TGFs. The distribution of the observation angles for 106 TGFs are compared to Monte Carlo simulations. We find that TGF emissions within an isotropic half angle >;30° can generate the observations. In addition, 36 events are used for spectral analysis. The result is a significant softening of the TGF energy spectrum for large observation angles, which is consistent with a TGF emission half angle <;40°. The constraints 30°-40° indicates that the electrons which produce TGFs are accelerated in nearly vertical electric fields.

Keywords

Monte Carlo methods; atmospheric electricity; atmospheric techniques; gamma-ray production; Monte Carlo simulation; TGF emission cone; TGF energy spectrum; angular distribution; isotropic half angle; spectral analysis; terrestrial gamma ray flashes; vertical electric fields; Atmospheric modeling; Electric fields; Geology; Photonics; Production; Satellites; Scattering;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

General Assembly and Scientific Symposium, 2011 XXXth URSI

Conference_Location

Istanbul

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-5117-3

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/URSIGASS.2011.6050936

Filename

6050936