Norwegian scientists discover cosmic radiation in thunderclouds

[Tsanten Eywa 'eveng]

Norwegian scientists have discovered for the first time in the world, cosmic radiation in thunderclouds.


Dagladet(Norwegian newspaper): http://www.dagbladet.no/2013/04/24/nyheter/forskning/astronomi/vitenskap/innenriks/26830507/

Until the early 1990s believed that gamma-ray bursts - massive burst of gamma and X-rays - only occurred in space, in conjunction with major cosmic events such as supernovae (star explosions); bursts are among the universe's most energetic events.
In 1991, however, discovered a U.S. satellite that bursts also occur on Earth - albeit a much smaller scale. And now researchers from Birkeland Norwegian Centre for Space Science in Bergen, as the first in the world, demonstrated bursts of lightning. The discovery is a sensation.

- The response from the international scientific community has been very good, said Thomas Gjesteland to Dagbladet.

Coincidence
Together with the head of the research center, Nikolai Østgaard, is Gjesteland behind the compilation of data from Nasa satellite RHESSI (which detects GRBs), the US-Japanese satellite TRMM (which optically detects lightning) and a listening station at Duke University in North Carolina (that captures radio pulses).
By chance they found two satellites at the same time near a thundercloud over Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela. The compilation of the data reveals that the explosion comes immediately before the lightning. Then two radio pulses sent out. Everything happens within a period of a few milliseconds, and the gamma ray burst lasts only 17 microseconds (millionths of a second).
- It was a lucky coincidence, says Gjesteland.
The researcher explains that conventional lightning-detectors only detects lightning via radio signals they send out, and that they therefore have never seen a flash of lightning occur simultaneously with GRBs. The lucky combination of satellites and ground station made ​​it possible, however, to prove that the two events occurred simultaneously.
The discovery provides a great starting point for further research, this single observation is not enough to establish a firm link between GRBs and lightning - but several, including the Guest Country, believes such a relationship exists.
- The two phenomena appear to be very correlated, it might GRBs in all lightning, he said.

Not dangerous
Gamma-ray bursts from a supernova is powerful enough to put an end to all life that comes in the way of the beam and is close enough. Gjesteland emphasizes that bursts from underground thunderclouds not pose any danger.

- The energy per photon ("energy particle") is as big as a cosmic gamma-ray bursts, but the amount of photons is very much smaller, and the eruption lasts much shorter - a cosmic flash may last for minutes, even hours, he said.

- If you are in a plane immediately above an outbreak, you only get in you twice the radiation dose during a CT scan. And in that situation I would be more concerned about the impact of the lightning, he said.

Results from Gjesteland and Østgaard announced tonight.

[Vawmataw]

That's interesting that we can get radiations from deeper space.

And it's good that it's not dangerous!

[`Eylan Ayfalulukanä]

I think this article represents a poor interpretation of a now well-known phenomenon.

First, remember that as 'frequency' increases of an electromagnetic wave, the energy it contains also increases, by a easily calculated amount. Also remember that any form of electromagnetic energy can be looked at as a wave or a particle, with the energy of the particle being related to its mass by E-MC². There is a tendency to look at lower energy electromagnetic energy as waves, and higher energy electomagnetic energy as particles. Thus, we have radio waves and gamma particles. But there are radio particles and gamma waves as well.

It has been observed for a long time that very powerful thunderstorms can flash lightning upwards as well as downwards. The energy from the upwards flashes are dissipated in the upper stratosphere and lower ionosphere. These are referred to as 'sprites', and they are spectacular sights. There are many photographs of them on the 'net.

I believe that what is described in this article is a sprite and not a normal lightning flash. It is by the mechanism described that it was observed that sprites can emit gamma radiation. If normal terrestrial lightning emitted gamma radiation, it would have been detected a long time ago, and would be commonly observed. X-rays are often observed from lightning, but x-rays mainly result from the rearrangement of electrons that occurs when something is ionized. This is why fluorescent lamps emit x-rays, from the ionized mercury vapor within. these x-rays are weak enough (on the low end of the energy range) that they are mostly shielded by the walls of the lamp. But some do escape, and if their 'frequency' or energy are measured, it corresponds to wekk-known electron transitions in a mercury atom.

Gamma rays, the next range higher than x-rays, are produced mainly by nuclear phenomena, such as radioactive decay, fission and fusion. But since there is a continuum of electromagnetic energies, some very energetic electron-related phenomena are actually above the beginning of the range of energies associated with nuclear phenomena. Thus, some weak 'gamma rays' are actually X-rays, and some very powerful 'X-rays' are actually gamma rays.

So considering that lightning is purely an electrical phenomena, how is it that sprites are generating gamma rays, a nuclear phenomena? The answer was pretty obvious when scientists measured the energy of these sprite-induced gamma rays. They measured an energy of .511 MeV (Million electron Volts, a measure of among other things, electromagnetic energy.) This energy level correlates to another interesting and well-studiedphenomenon-- matter-antimatter annihilation.

Gamma rays can be high enough in energy that they can, under the right circumstances, convert from energy to matter. In the case of this particular energy, it corresponds to the mass of an electron. It is also possible that an electron can become a gamma ray, likely from collision with another particle.

But lightning alone cannot accelerate electrons to a high enough velocity to create a gamma ray. But in the altitude of a sprite, you have the earth's magnetic field at work. Electrons from the lightning can be accelerated by the magnetic field until they can create gamma rays. Gamma rays can also create electron-positron pairs. These particles immediately annihilate each other, and produce gamma radiation of the type observed. (This is a simplified description!) Also, even though .511 MeV is in the gamma energy range, it is being produced by an 'electronic' phenomena.

So now, scientists can observe gamma ray bursts caused by lightning 'sprites' on earth, and tell them from the really high energy 'cosmic rays', which can be several thousand times higher in energy. In fact some cosmic rays are far more powerful than any energy we make in the Large Hadron Collider!

[Tsanten Eywa 'eveng]

Why all that negativity, 'Eylan?
Just face the facts, that this is the first time it has been observed and studied, and actually been confirmed it is real.

[`Eylan Ayfalulukanä]

Why all that negativity, 'Eylan?
Just face the facts, that this is the first time it has been observed and studied, and actually been confirmed it is real.

There are tens of thousands of radiation detectors out there looking for gamma radiation all over the world. If it was seen coming from lightning as we know it, it would have been observed decades ago.

I'm not trying to be negative, just to show that something like this happens, but not quite the way it is described.

And spacecraft do see gamma ray bursts from sprites. But we don't see it on the ground, even from nearby lightning flashes. There is no new physics here. It takes a given amount of energy to create what we call a gamma ray, and this is more than what we see in terrestrial phenomena.

There is also an important difference between 'gamma rays' and 'cosmic rays'. Gamma rays can have terrestrial and extraterrestrial origins, and correspond to a range of electromagnetic energies above a certain thresahold. Cosmic rays have an extraterrestrial origin. They are classified in the range that covers gamma rays, but can have far higher energies than what we typically consider gamma radiation from known nuclear processes. This is why I opened the previous post I made with a discussion of the nature of electromagnetic energy.

[Tsanten Eywa 'eveng]

You are mostly negative in all comments. But most, you argue a lot. No offense.

[`Eylan Ayfalulukanä]

Yes, I am often negative in comments. There is a lot of evil in this world, that you will learn about when you are older. And that evil seems to be getting stronger all the time. And I find myself in the unenviable position of having to fight it.

As far as being argumentative, I am a trained debater. I also don't believe everything I read or see on TV.

I did a little research, and came up with this article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrestrial_gamma-ray_flash, which largely supports my position on this, and also (I believe) the author's position in the article you posted (I can't read Norwegian). You will read that the lightning events producing gamma ray bursts are rather uncommon (about 50-500/day, centered on the equator) compared to the amount of lightning on earth. They somehow seem related to relativistic runaway electron avalanche (RREA) events, that tend to happen in the strong electric fields produced by thunderstorms. These RREAs may be triggered by a high energy cosmic rays that occurs at the same time as the electric field breakdown that is part of lightning. Or, some may occur without lightning, but a strong electric field. In any case, this fascinating material bears some careful reading.

[Tsanten Eywa 'eveng]

I know there is evil in the world. I'm not stupid. I see China is evil, North-Korea, even we have a damn conflict in our own country. Here in Norway we have an oil conflict. The people here I living doesn't want that the gouvernment are going to take over all the resources here. The gouvernment want to start for the first time with oil drilling in Northern-Norway, but there is a problem. They want to do it in a vulnerable area. Lofoten has the world's largest fishing industry. If we lose everything there, we will face big problems here, what will happen, is that most of the people will move away, and that is hundreds of thousands of people, or about 400,000 people. If the people in Lofoten moves away because of this, it is about 20,000 people.
Our country will struggle economically if this happens. Currently we are one of the richest countries in the world, but it is a lot of things we don't fixing up, and a lot of things the gouvernment using the money to something meaningless. The extra thing we will struggle economically with, is the tourists that is coming here. We lose Lofoten, we lose the tourists aswell.

Sadly, it seems the gouvernment will win this

Since there is a vulnerable area, there is a high risk for oil disasters happening.



And China is evil? Yeah I mean it. China is evil. China are on a brink of war with Japan, and even USA, if they don't negotiate with them in the conflict at the Korean Peninsula(South and North Korea). China has already deployed missile pad launchers at Taiwan.