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Further observations of X‐rays inside thunderstorms
Author(s) -
McCarthy M.,
Parks G. K.
Publication year - 1985
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/gl012i006p00393
Subject(s) - thunderstorm , lightning (connector) , physics , flux (metallurgy) , detector , radiation , flash (photography) , range (aeronautics) , astrophysics , cosmic ray , meteorology , environmental science , optics , materials science , power (physics) , quantum mechanics , metallurgy , composite material
A control and an x‐ray detector were flown into thunderstorms in 1984. The x‐ray detector found statistically significant radiation flux increases in the energy range 5 to > 110 keV for time intervals of several seconds each. Simultaneously the control detector showed no statistically significant changes. The x‐ray flux is sometimes seen to increase prior to observed lightning discharges and then return to background levels within 0.1 seconds of a lightning flash initiation. The temporal development of these x‐ray bursts is discussed and related to inferring the scale size of the x‐ray emitting regions.