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Compton scattering effects on the duration of terrestrial gamma‐ray flashes
Author(s) -
Celestin Sebastien,
Pasko Victor P.
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2011gl050342
Subject(s) - physics , fermi gamma ray space telescope , gamma ray , compton scattering , astrophysics , photon , scattering , gamma ray burst , astronomy , optics
Terrestrial gamma‐ray flashes (TGFs) are gamma‐ray bursts detected from space that are associated with lightning activity. In the present paper, we show that the shorter TGF durations (∼50 μ s) recently discovered by the gamma‐ray burst monitor (GBM) aboard the Fermi Gamma‐Ray Space Telescope are consistent with the temporal dispersion associated with the Compton scattering of photons produced by an instantaneous TGF source. This new result suggests that short TGF pulses observed from satellites correspond to very short TGF sources with durations less than ∼10 μ s and that the observed long TGF pulses (≳100 μ s) may be due to overlapping of emissions produced by a sequence of elementary processes with much shorter temporal durations.