Probing Atmospheric Electric Fields in Thunderstorms through Radio Emission from Cosmic-Ray-Induced Air Showers

P. Schellart (1) , T. n. g. Trinh (2) , S. Buitink (1) , A. Corstanje (1) , J. e. Enriquez (1) , H. Falcke (3, 1, 4, 5) , J. r. Hörandel (1, 5) , A. Nelles (1) , J. p. Rachen (1) , L. Rossetto (1) , O. Scholten (6, 2) , S. ter Veen (3, 1) , S. Thoudam (1) , U. Ebert (7) , C. Koehn (7) , C. Rutjes (7) , A. Alexov (8) , J. m. Anderson (9) , I. m. Avruch (10) , M. j. Bentum (3) , G. Bernardi (11) , P. Best (12) , A. Bonafede (13) , F. Breitling (14) , J. w. Broderick (15, 16) , M. Brüggen (17) , H. r. Butcher (18) , B. Ciardi (19) , E. de Geus (3) , M. de Vos (3) , S. Duscha (3) , J. Eislöffel (20) , R. a. Fallows (3) , W. Frieswijk (3) , M. a. Garrett (3) , Jean-Mathias Griessmeier (21, 22) , A. w. Gunst (3) , G. Heald (3) , J. w. t. Hessels (3) , M. Hoeft (20) , H. a. Holties (3) , E. Juette (23) , V. i. Kondratiev (3) , M. Kuniyoshi (24) , G. Kuper (3) , G. Mann (14) , R. Mcfadden (3) , D. Mckay-Bukowski (25) , J. p. Mckean (3) , M. Mevius (3) , J. Moldon (3) , M. j. Norden (3) , E. Orru (3) , H. Paas (26) , M. Pandey-Pommier (27) , R. Pizzo (3) , A. g. Polatidis (3) , W. Reich (4) , H. Röttgering (28) , A. m. m. Scaife (16) , D. j. Schwarz (29) , M. Serylak (15) , O. Smirnov (30) , M. Steinmetz (14) , J. Swinbank (31) , Michel Tagger (22) , C. Tasse (32) , M. c. Toribio (3) , R. j. van Weeren (10) , R. Vermeulen (3) , C. Vocks (14) , M. w. Wise (3) , O. Wucknitz (4) , P. Zarka (32)

1 Department of Astrophysics [Nijmegen]
2 KVI Center for Advanced Radiation Technology
3 ASTRON - Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy
4 MPIFR - Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie
5 NIKHEF - National Institute for Subatomic Physics [Amsterdam]
6 VUB - Vrije Universiteit Brussel
7 CWI - Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica
8 STSci - Space Telescope Science Institute
9 GFZ - GeoForschungsZentrum - Helmholtz-Zentrum Potsdam
10 SRON - SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research
11 CfA - Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
12 IfA - Institute for Astronomy [Edinburgh]
13 University of Hamburg
14 AIP - Leibniz-Institut für Astrophysik Potsdam
15 Oxford Astrophysics
16 University of Southampton
17 University of Edinburgh
18 RSAA - Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics [Canberra]
19 Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics
20 TLS - Thüringer Landessternwarte Tautenburg
21 USN - Unité Scientifique de la Station de Nançay
22 LPC2E - Laboratoire de Physique et Chimie de l'Environnement et de l'Espace
23 Astronomisches Institut der Ruhr-Universität Bochum
24 NAOJ - National Astronomical Observatory of Japan
25 University of Oulu
26 Center for Information Technology CIT
27 CRAL - Centre de Recherche Astrophysique de Lyon
28 Leiden Observatory [Leiden]
29 Universität Bielefeld = Bielefeld University
30 SKA South Africa
31 AI PANNEKOEK - Astronomical Institute Anton Pannekoek
32 LESIA - Laboratoire d'études spatiales et d'instrumentation en astrophysique

We present measurements of radio emission from cosmic ray air showers that took place during thunderstorms. The intensity and polarization patterns of these air showers are radically different from those measured during fair-weather conditions. With the use of a simple two-layer model for the atmospheric electric field, these patterns can be well reproduced by state-of-the-art simulation codes. This in turn provides a novel way to study atmospheric electric fields.

Domains: Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics [physics.ao-ph]; Ocean, Atmosphere

P. Schellart, T. n. g. Trinh, S. Buitink, A. Corstanje, J. e. Enriquez, et al.. Probing Atmospheric Electric Fields in Thunderstorms through Radio Emission from Cosmic-Ray-Induced Air Showers. Physical Review Letters, 2015, 114 (165001), 6 p. ⟨10.1103/PhysRevLett.114.165001⟩. ⟨insu-01170445⟩