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In‐Flight Observation of Positron Annihilation by ILDAS

We report a 511‐keV photon flux enhancement that was observed inside a thundercloud and is a result of positron annihilation. The observation was made with the In‐flight Lightning Damage Assessment System (ILDAS) on board of an A340 test aircraft. The aircraft was intentionally flying through a thun...

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Autores principales: Kochkin, P., Sarria, D., Skeie, C., van Deursen, A. P. J., de Boer, A. I., Bardet, M., Allasia, C., Flourens, F., Østgaard, N.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6473548/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31032163
http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2018JD028337
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author Kochkin, P.
Sarria, D.
Skeie, C.
van Deursen, A. P. J.
de Boer, A. I.
Bardet, M.
Allasia, C.
Flourens, F.
Østgaard, N.
author_facet Kochkin, P.
Sarria, D.
Skeie, C.
van Deursen, A. P. J.
de Boer, A. I.
Bardet, M.
Allasia, C.
Flourens, F.
Østgaard, N.
author_sort Kochkin, P.
collection PubMed
description We report a 511‐keV photon flux enhancement that was observed inside a thundercloud and is a result of positron annihilation. The observation was made with the In‐flight Lightning Damage Assessment System (ILDAS) on board of an A340 test aircraft. The aircraft was intentionally flying through a thunderstorm at 12‐km altitude over Northern Australia in January 2016. Two gamma ray detectors showed a significant count rate increase synchronously with fast electromagnetic field variations registered by an on‐board antenna. A sequence of 10 gamma ray enhancements was detected, each lasted for about 1 s. Their spectrum mainly consists of 511‐keV photons and their Compton component. The local electric activity during the emission was identified as a series of static discharges of the aircraft. A full‐scale Geant4 model of the aircraft was created to estimate the emission area. Monte Carlo simulation indicated that the positrons annihilated in direct vicinity or in the aircraft body.
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spelling pubmed-64735482019-04-24 In‐Flight Observation of Positron Annihilation by ILDAS Kochkin, P. Sarria, D. Skeie, C. van Deursen, A. P. J. de Boer, A. I. Bardet, M. Allasia, C. Flourens, F. Østgaard, N. J Geophys Res Atmos Research Articles We report a 511‐keV photon flux enhancement that was observed inside a thundercloud and is a result of positron annihilation. The observation was made with the In‐flight Lightning Damage Assessment System (ILDAS) on board of an A340 test aircraft. The aircraft was intentionally flying through a thunderstorm at 12‐km altitude over Northern Australia in January 2016. Two gamma ray detectors showed a significant count rate increase synchronously with fast electromagnetic field variations registered by an on‐board antenna. A sequence of 10 gamma ray enhancements was detected, each lasted for about 1 s. Their spectrum mainly consists of 511‐keV photons and their Compton component. The local electric activity during the emission was identified as a series of static discharges of the aircraft. A full‐scale Geant4 model of the aircraft was created to estimate the emission area. Monte Carlo simulation indicated that the positrons annihilated in direct vicinity or in the aircraft body. John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2018-08-03 2018-08-16 /pmc/articles/PMC6473548/ /pubmed/31032163 http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2018JD028337 Text en ©2018. The Authors. This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non‐commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.
spellingShingle Research Articles
Kochkin, P.
Sarria, D.
Skeie, C.
van Deursen, A. P. J.
de Boer, A. I.
Bardet, M.
Allasia, C.
Flourens, F.
Østgaard, N.
In‐Flight Observation of Positron Annihilation by ILDAS
title In‐Flight Observation of Positron Annihilation by ILDAS
title_full In‐Flight Observation of Positron Annihilation by ILDAS
title_fullStr In‐Flight Observation of Positron Annihilation by ILDAS
title_full_unstemmed In‐Flight Observation of Positron Annihilation by ILDAS
title_short In‐Flight Observation of Positron Annihilation by ILDAS
title_sort in‐flight observation of positron annihilation by ildas
topic Research Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6473548/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31032163
http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2018JD028337
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