Observation of Variations in Cosmic Ray Showers During Thunderstorms and Implications for Large-Scale Electric Field Changes

the Telescope ArrayCollaboration

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Abstract

This work presents the first observation by the Telescope Array Surface Detector (TASD) of the effect of thunderstorms on the development of the cosmic ray showers. Observations of variations in the cosmic ray showers, using the TASD, allows us to study the electric field inside thunderstorms on a large scale without dealing with all the limitation of narrow exposure in time and space using balloons and aircraft detectors. In this work, observations of variations in the cosmic ray shower intensity (ΔN/N) using the TASD, was studied and found to be on average at the (1 − 2)% level. These observations where found to be both negative and positive in polarity. They were found to be correlated with lightning but also with thunderstorms. The size of the footprint of these variations on the ground ranged from (4-24) km in diameter and lasted for 10s of minutes. Dependence of (ΔN/N) on the electric field inside thunderstorms, in this work, is derived from CORSIKA simulations.

Original languageEnglish
Article number297
JournalProceedings of Science
Volume395
Publication statusPublished - 2022 Mar 18
Event37th International Cosmic Ray Conference, ICRC 2021 - Virtual, Berlin, Germany
Duration: 2021 Jul 122021 Jul 23

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
Operation and analyses of this study have been supported by NSF grants AGS-1844306 and AGS-2112709. The Telescope Array experiment is supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science(JSPS) through Grants-in-Aid for Priority Area 431, for Specially Promoted Research JP21000002, for Scientific Research (S) JP19104006, for Specially Promoted Research JP15H05693, for Scientific Research (S) JP15H05741 and JP19H05607, for Science Research (A) JP18H03705, for Young Scientists (A) JPH26707011, and for Fostering Joint International Research (B) JP19KK0074, by the joint research program of the Institute for Cosmic Ray Research (ICRR), The University of Tokyo; by the Pioneering Program of RIKEN for the Evolution of Matter in the Universe (r-EMU); by the U.S. National Science Foundation awards PHY-1404495, PHY-1404502, PHY-1607727, PHY-1712517, PHY-1806797 and PHY-2012934; by the National Research Foundation of Korea (2017K1A4A3015188, 2020R1A2C1008230, & 2020R1A2C2102800) ; by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation under the contract 075-15-2020-778, RFBR grant 20-02-00625a (INR), IISN project No. 4.4501.18, and Belgian Science Policy under IUAP VII/37 (ULB). This work was partially supported by the grants ofThe joint research program of the Institute for Space-Earth Environmental Research, Nagoya University and Inter-University Research Program of the Institute for Cosmic Ray Research of University of Tokyo. The foundations of Dr. Ezekiel R. and Edna Wattis Dumke, Willard L. Eccles, and George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles all helped with generous donations. The State of Utah supported the project

Funding Information:
Operation and analyses of this study have been supported by NSF grants AGS-1844306 and AGS-2112709. The Telescope Array experiment is supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science(JSPS) through Grants-in-Aid for Priority Area 431, for Specially Promoted Research JP21000002, for Scientific Research (S) JP19104006, for Specially Promoted Research JP15H05693, for Scientific Research (S) JP15H05741 and JP19H05607, for Science Research (A) JP18H03705, for Young Scientists (A) JPH26707011, and for Fostering Joint International Research (B) JP19KK0074, by the joint research program of the Institute for Cosmic Ray Research (ICRR), The University of Tokyo; by the Pioneering Program of RIKEN for the Evolution of Matter in the Universe (r-EMU); by the U.S. National Science Foundation awards PHY-1404495, PHY-1404502, PHY-1607727, PHY-1712517, PHY-1806797 and PHY-2012934; by the National Research Foundation of Korea (2017K1A4A3015188, 2020R1A2C1008230, & 2020R1A2C2102800); by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation under the contract 075-15-2020-778, RFBR grant 20-02-00625a (INR), IISN project No. 4.4501.18, and Belgian Science Policy under IUAP VII/37 (ULB). This work was partially supported by the grants ofThe joint research program of the Institute for Space-Earth Environmental Research, Nagoya University and Inter-University Research Program of the Institute for Cosmic Ray Research of University of Tokyo. The foundations of Dr. Ezekiel R. and Edna Wattis Dumke, Willard L. Eccles, and George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles all helped with generous donations. The State of Utah supported the project through its Economic Development Board, and the University of Utah through the Office of the Vice President for Research. The experimental site became available through the cooperation of the Utah School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration (SITLA), U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and the U.S. Air Force. We appreciate the assistance of the State of Utah and Fillmore offices of the BLM in crafting the Plan of Development for the site. Patrick A. Shea assisted the collaboration with valuable advice and supported the collaboration’s efforts. The people and the officials of Millard County, Utah have been a source of steadfast and warm support for our work which we greatly appreciate. We are indebted to the Millard County Road Department for their efforts to maintain and clear the roads which get us to our sites. We gratefully acknowledge the contribution from the technical staffs of our home institutions. An allocation of computer time from the Center for High Performance Computing at the University of Utah is gratefully acknowledged. We thank Ryan Said and W. A. Brooks of Vaisala Inc. for providing quality NLDN data lightning discharges over and around the TASD under their academic research use policy.

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All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

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