The electrical effects of the storm are not limited to the upper layers of the atmosphere. Near the ground, Earth’s atmosphere hums with intense electric fields that accelerate particles, eject electrons so that atoms begin to glow with gamma rays. Scientists took a close look at this mysterious meteorological phenomenon from a mountaintop in Armenia.

At the Cosmic Ray Laboratory of the National Scientific Laboratory named after him on Mount Aragats, Alikhanyan, physicist Ashot Chilingaryan, and colleagues are working on the study of storm ground amplification, or THP.

This electromagnetic amplification hasn’t been taken into account in storm studies, Chilingarian says, but it could be a piece of the puzzle in our understanding of the physical universe, from storms on Earth to cosmic rays traveling great distances in space. .

“There are 40,000 storms every day. Numerous networks detect atmospheric discharges, and satellites with sensitive optical instruments monitor lightning. But when we started investigating the TGE, no one knew the huge megaelectronvolt (MeV) that bombards our planet and the space above it,” he told ScienceAlert. He said he didn’t follow the flow of electrons.

“We established the SEVAN particle detector network ten years ago to monitor TGE in Eastern Europe, Germany and Armenia. Electron accelerators with energies of tens of MeV cover huge volumes in the atmosphere and square kilometers on the Earth’s surface.

“This enormous flow has accompanied life on Earth throughout its billions of years of evolution and impacts absolutely all aspects of geospace and the biosphere.”

TGEs consist of electric fields created in the atmosphere by storms. In these electric fields, electrons are accelerated to high speeds, that is, speeds approaching the speed of light in vacuum or relativistic speeds.

These are known as relativistic electron avalanches that move towards both the ground and the atmosphere under the influence of an electric field. It is these electrons that create radiation.

When they deflect and suddenly slow down by colliding with an atomic nucleus in the atmosphere, the loss of energy manifests as gamma radiation, a type of radiation known as bremsstrahlung.

Using their network of detectors, Chilingarian and colleagues collected data on storms in Europe in 2023 and made detailed measurements of the electrons and gamma rays produced during the 56 intense TGEs they recorded.

The most intense TGEs occurred mostly from May to July, with the strongest recorded in May at Mount Lomnytskyi Shtyt in Slovakia. Particle flux during this event was 100 times the normal level for clear air. A total of seven events exceeding normal flow by more than 75 percent were recorded.

“We measure a stable flow of electrons on the Earth’s surface covering a hundred thousand square meters. Some mechanisms maintain this stability for a period of a minute or more.” Chilingarian explained.

“A huge electron beam occurs in a storm cloud, where the charge structure changes on a second time scale. Discharges in the atmosphere eliminate the potential difference, but the flux remains constant. It was very interesting to measure this!”

Surprisingly, the researchers also found that the electric field was much closer to the ground than they expected. They measured a strong electric field as high as 50 meters (164 feet) above the ground.

“This discovery shocked meteorologists, who did not believe it until we presented extensive evidence,” Chilingarian said.

The constancy of the acceleration and the low height of the electric field, which can maintain the flow of particles for several minutes, reveal new details about the structure of atmospheric electric fields and thunderstorms that we did not know before. For example, THPs can provide a path for lightning to reach the ground. And their role in geophysics requires investigation. The researchers created a publicly available TGE database so that the scientific community can review and analyze this data.

His studies of storms are only a part of the work done on Aragats. This year, the Sun went crazy as it approached solar maximum, the peak of its activity cycle, sending particles blasted into space by coronal mass ejections. Chilingarian and his colleagues also detected solar events using mountaintop equipment; Three articles have been published and a fourth is on the way.

“Violent explosions in our galaxy also send ultra-high-energy particles into the solar system. Recently, pevatrons, sources of gamma radiation with an energy of 1015 eV, were discovered. “We critically analyzed this discovery based on our knowledge of atmospheric physics,” Chilingarian said in an interview with ScienceAlert.

“The synergy of atmospheric, cosmic and solar accelerators is important for understanding nature!” The results of the research will be published in the journal Physical Review D.