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"description": "Merging data on high-energy bursts seen on Earth by NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope with data from ground-based radar and lightning detectors, scientists have completed the most detailed analysis to date of the types of thunderstorms producing terrestrial gamma-ray flashes, or TGFs.
TGFs occur unpredictably and fleetingly, with durations less than a thousandth of a second, and remain poorly understood. Yet the gamma rays they produce rank among the highest-energy light naturally produced on Earth.
Earlier Fermi studies helped uncover lightning-like radio signals emitted by TGFs. This made it possible to use ground-based lightning location networks to pin down storms producing the flashes, opening the door to a deeper understanding of the meteorology powering these extreme events.
Scientists gathered a sample of nearly 900 Fermi TGFs accurately located by ground networks, which can pinpoint the location of lightning discharges -- and the corresponding signals from TGFs -- to within 6 miles (10 km) anywhere on the globe. From this group, they identified 24 TGFs that occurred within areas covered by Next Generation Weather Radar (NEXRAD) sites.
The researchers found that even weak and marginally electrified storms are capable of producing TGFs.
The new study also confirms previous findings indicating that TGFs tend to occur near the highest parts of a thunderstorm, between about 7 and 9 miles (11 to 14 kilometers) high. However, TGFs associated with lightning at lower altitudes would be so weakened by traveling a longer path through the atmosphere that Fermi couldn't detect them. If true, the estimated number of 1,100 TGFs occurring each day may be much larger than previously thought.",
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"description": "Updrafts and downdrafts within thunderstorms force rain, snow and ice to collide and acquire an electrical charge. Usually, positive charge accumulates in the upper part of the storm and negative charge gathers below. When this electrical field becomes so strong it breaks down the insulating properties of air, a lightning discharge occurs. Under just the right conditions, the upper part of an intracloud lightning bolt disrupts the storm's electric field in such a way that an avalanche of electrons surges upward at high speed. When these fast-moving electrons are deflected by air molecules, they emit gamma rays and create a TGF. There are about 2,000 intracloud discharges for each TGF detected by Fermi.
Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center ", "items": [ { "id": 302770, "type": "media", "extra_data": null, "title": null, "caption": null, "instance": { "id": 448221, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a010200/a010278/Thunderstorm_Still.jpg", "filename": "Thunderstorm_Still.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "Updrafts and downdrafts within thunderstorms force rain, snow and ice to collide and acquire an electrical charge. Usually, positive charge accumulates in the upper part of the storm and negative charge gathers below. When this electrical field becomes so strong it breaks down the insulating properties of air, a lightning discharge occurs. Under just the right conditions, the upper part of an intracloud lightning bolt disrupts the storm's electric field in such a way that an avalanche of electrons surges upward at high speed. When these fast-moving electrons are deflected by air molecules, they emit gamma rays and create a TGF. There are about 2,000 intracloud discharges for each TGF detected by Fermi.Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center ", "width": 1920, "height": 1080, "pixels": 2073600 } }, { "id": 302771, "type": "media", "extra_data": null, "title": null, "caption": null, "instance": { "id": 448219, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a010200/a010278/Thunderstorm_Still_web.jpg", "filename": "Thunderstorm_Still_web.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "Updrafts and downdrafts within thunderstorms force rain, snow and ice to collide and acquire an electrical charge. Usually, positive charge accumulates in the upper part of the storm and negative charge gathers below. When this electrical field becomes so strong it breaks down the insulating properties of air, a lightning discharge occurs. Under just the right conditions, the upper part of an intracloud lightning bolt disrupts the storm's electric field in such a way that an avalanche of electrons surges upward at high speed. When these fast-moving electrons are deflected by air molecules, they emit gamma rays and create a TGF. There are about 2,000 intracloud discharges for each TGF detected by Fermi.Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center ", "width": 320, "height": 180, "pixels": 57600 } }, { "id": 302769, "type": "media", "extra_data": null, "title": null, "caption": null, "instance": { "id": 448220, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a010200/a010278/Thunderstorm_Still.tif", "filename": "Thunderstorm_Still.tif", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "Updrafts and downdrafts within thunderstorms force rain, snow and ice to collide and acquire an electrical charge. Usually, positive charge accumulates in the upper part of the storm and negative charge gathers below. When this electrical field becomes so strong it breaks down the insulating properties of air, a lightning discharge occurs. Under just the right conditions, the upper part of an intracloud lightning bolt disrupts the storm's electric field in such a way that an avalanche of electrons surges upward at high speed. When these fast-moving electrons are deflected by air molecules, they emit gamma rays and create a TGF. There are about 2,000 intracloud discharges for each TGF detected by Fermi.Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center ", "width": 1920, "height": 1080, "pixels": 2073600 } } ], "extra_data": {} }, { "id": 344348, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10278/#media_group_344348", "widget": "Single image", "title": "", "caption": "", "description": "Three storms within the coverage area of the NEXRAD radar site at Key West, Florida, illustrate the range of weather capable of producing TGFs. The insets show the maximum height of radar reflectivity echoes, which helps identify strong thunderstorm updrafts, for each storm at the time a TGF occurred. The central column shows the 3-D distribution of the radar echoes and the location of the TGF (shown as a lightning bolt).
Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/T. Chronis and M. Briggs, UAH ", "items": [ { "id": 302773, "type": "media", "extra_data": null, "title": null, "caption": null, "instance": { "id": 448223, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a010200/a010278/TGF_trio_print.jpg", "filename": "TGF_trio_print.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "Three storms within the coverage area of the NEXRAD radar site at Key West, Florida, illustrate the range of weather capable of producing TGFs. The insets show the maximum height of radar reflectivity echoes, which helps identify strong thunderstorm updrafts, for each storm at the time a TGF occurred. The central column shows the 3-D distribution of the radar echoes and the location of the TGF (shown as a lightning bolt).Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/T. Chronis and M. 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Using data from NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope and ground-based lightning detection networks, scientists tracking these fleeting outbursts are beginning to learn more about how conditions in hurricanes, typhoons and other tropical weather systems set the stage for TGFs. Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight CenterMusic: Glacial Fields and The Piper from Killer Tracks.Watch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel.Complete transcript available. || Bolaven_Still.jpg (1920x1080) [449.4 KB] || Bolaven_Still_print.jpg (1024x576) [157.2 KB] || Bolaven_Still_searchweb.png (320x180) [102.2 KB] || Bolaven_Still_thm.png (80x40) [6.9 KB] || 12452_Fermi_TGF_Tropical_Storm_ProRes_1920x1080_2997.mov (1920x1080) [2.9 GB] || 12452_Fermi_TGF_Tropical_Storm_FINAL_youtube_hq.mov (1920x1080) [899.5 MB] || 12452_Fermi_TGF_Tropical_Storm-1080.mov (1920x1080) [330.1 MB] || 12452_Fermi_TGF_Tropical_Storm-1080_Good.m4v (1920x1080) [219.8 MB] || 12452_Fermi_TGF_Tropical_Storm-compatible.m4v (960x540) [86.1 MB] || 12452_Fermi_TGF_Tropical_Storm_FINAL_appletv.m4v (1280x720) [115.9 MB] || WMV_12452_Fermi_TGF_Tropical_Storm_FINAL_HD.wmv (1920x1080) [223.9 MB] || 12452_Fermi_TGF_Tropical_Storm-compatible.webm (960x540) [24.1 MB] || 12452_Fermi_TGF_Tropical_Storm_FINAL_appletv_subtitles.m4v (1280x720) [116.0 MB] || Fermi_TGF_Tropical_Storm_SRT_Captions.en_US.srt [3.6 KB] || Fermi_TGF_Tropical_Storm_SRT_Captions.en_US.vtt [3.6 KB] || ", "release_date": "2017-04-24T13:00:00-04:00", "update_date": "2023-05-03T13:47:44.870043-04:00", "main_image": { "id": 417754, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a012400/a012452/Bolaven_Still.jpg", "filename": "Bolaven_Still.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "Storm clouds produce some of the highest-energy light naturally made on Earth: terrestrial gamma-ray flashes (TGFs). Using data from NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope and ground-based lightning detection networks, scientists tracking these fleeting outbursts are beginning to learn more about how conditions in hurricanes, typhoons and other tropical weather systems set the stage for TGFs. Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight CenterMusic: Glacial Fields and The Piper from Killer Tracks.Watch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel.Complete transcript available.", "width": 1920, "height": 1080, "pixels": 2073600 } }, { "id": 11131, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/11131/", "page_type": "Produced Video", "title": "Fermi Improves Its Vision For Thunderstorm Gamma-ray Flashes", "description": "Thanks to improved data analysis techniques and a new operating mode, the Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (GBM) aboard NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope is now 10 times better at catching the brief outbursts of high-energy light mysteriously produced above thunderstorms. The outbursts, known as terrestrial gamma-ray flashes (TGFs), last only a few thousandths of a second, but their gamma rays rank among the highest-energy light that naturally occurs on Earth. The enhanced GBM discovery rate helped scientists show most TGFs also generate a strong burst of radio waves, a finding that will change how scientists study this poorly understood phenomenon.Lightning emits a broad range of very low frequency (VLF) radio waves, often heard as pop-and-crackle static when listening to AM radio. The World Wide Lightning Location Network (WWLLN), a research collaboration operated by the University of Washington in Seattle, routinely detects these radio signals and uses them to pinpoint the location of lightning discharges anywhere on the globe to within about 12 miles (20 km).Scientists have known for a long time TGFs were linked to strong VLF bursts, but they interpreted these signals as originating from lightning strokes somehow associated with the gamma-ray emission.\"Instead, we've found when a strong radio burst occurs almost simultaneously with a TGF, the radio emission is coming from the TGF itself,\" said co-author Michael Briggs, a member of the GBM team. The researchers identified much weaker radio bursts that occur up to several thousandths of a second before or after a TGF. They interpret these signals as intracloud lightning strokes related to, but not created by, the gamma-ray flash. Scientists suspect TGFs arise from the strong electric fields near the tops of thunderstorms. Under certain conditions, the field becomes strong enough that it drives a high-speed upward avalanche of electrons, which give off gamma rays when they are deflected by air molecules. \"What's new here is that the same electron avalanche likely responsible for the gamma-ray emission also produces the VLF radio bursts, and this gives us a new window into understanding this phenomenon,\" said Joseph Dwyer, a physics professor at the Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne, Fla., and a member of the study team. Because the WWLLN radio positions are far more precise than those based on Fermi's orbit, scientists will develop a much clearer picture of where TGFs occur and perhaps which types of thunderstorms tend to produce them.Watch this video on YouTube. || ", "release_date": "2012-12-06T10:00:00-05:00", "update_date": "2023-05-03T13:52:32.658099-04:00", "main_image": { "id": 471001, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a011100/a011131/Fermi_TGF_Still_1.jpg", "filename": "Fermi_TGF_Still_1.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "Lightning in the clouds is directly linked to events that produce some of the highest-energy light naturally made on Earth: terrestrial gamma-ray flashes (TGFs). An instrument aboard NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope was recently fine-tuned to better catch TGFs, and this allowed scientists to discover that TGFs emit radio waves, too.For complete transcript, click here.", "width": 1280, "height": 720, "pixels": 921600 } }, { "id": 10706, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10706/", "page_type": "Produced Video", "title": "Terrestrial Gamma-ray Flashes Create Antimatter", "description": "NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has detected beams of antimatter launched by thunderstorms. Acting like enormous particle accelerators, the storms can emit gamma-ray flashes, called TGFs, and high-energy electrons and positrons. Scientists now think that most TGFs produce particle beams and antimatter.For additional animations showing bremsstrahlung and pair production gamma ray reactions, go here.For more visualizations showing Fermi's TGF detections, go to#3747, #3748, and #3756.For animations of the Fermi spacecraft and matter/antimatter, go to#10707 and #10651. || ", "release_date": "2011-01-10T16:00:00-05:00", "update_date": "2023-05-03T13:53:55.719114-04:00", "main_image": { "id": 488484, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a010700/a010706/TGF_Still_1280x720.jpg", "filename": "TGF_Still_1280x720.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "TGFs produce high-energy electrons and positrons. Moving near the speed of light, these particles travel into space along Earth's magnetic field.Watch this video on the NASAexplorer YouTube channel.For complete transcript, click here.", "width": 1280, "height": 720, "pixels": 921600 } } ], "sources": [], "products": [], "newer_versions": [], "older_versions": [], "alternate_versions": [] }