Login

AtmoHEAD 2024

15–17 Jul 2024
Hotel Continental Ischia
Europe/Rome timezone

AtmoHEAD 2024 LOC

Results from the ALOFT-2023 Mission: A Flight Campaign for TGF and Gamma-Ray Glow Observations Over Central America and the Caribbean in July 2023

16 Jul 2024, 09:30
30m
Hotel Continental Ischia

Hotel Continental Ischia

via M. Mazzella 70 80077 Ischia (NA)

Speaker

David Sarria (Department of Physics and Technology, University of Bergen, Norway)

Description

The Airborne Lightning Observatory for FEGS and TGFs (ALOFT) campaign, conducted during the summer of 2023 on-board a NASA ER-2 research aircraft, investigated Terrestrial Gamma-ray Flashes (TGFs) and gamma-ray glows from thunderclouds over Central America, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Caribbean. Flying at an altitude of 20 km, the NASA ER-2 was equipped with an advanced scientific payload: a suite of gamma-ray detectors with a dynamic range covering several orders of magnitude in flux and the full energy spectrum necessary for detecting TGFs and gamma-ray glows; the Fly’s Eye GLM Simulator (FEGS), sensitive to various wavelengths; electric field change meters (EFCM); the Lightning Instrument Package (LIP) for three-component electric field measurements; an array of microwave radiometers and radars for cloud characterization, including the Advanced Microwave Precipitation Radiometer (AMPR), Configurable Scanning Submillimeter-wave Instrument/Radiometer (CoSSIR), Cloud Radar System (CRS), and X-band Radar (EXRAD). The suite was complemented by extensive ground-based radio observations.
Over the course of 10 flights totaling 60 hours (about 30 above thunderstorms), the campaign resulted in the detection of 130 transient gamma-ray events and hundreds of gamma-ray glows, revealing that thunderclouds can glow for hours and span several thousands of square kilometers—far exceeding previous estimations of duration and area. In this presentation, we will provide an overview of ALOFT's key findings related to Terrestrial Gamma-ray Flashes (TGFs), Flickering Gamma-ray Flashes (FGFs), and observations of Gamma-ray Glows and Glow Bursts.

Primary authors

A. Fuglestad (Department of Physics and Technology, University of Bergen, Norway) A. Mezentsev (Department of Physics and Technology, University of Bergen, Norway) A. Santos (Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Columbia) B. Hasan Qureshi (Department of Physics and Technology, University of Bergen, Norway) B. Husa (Department of Physics and Technology, University of Bergen, Norway) C. Schultz (NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, USA) C. Velosa (Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Columbia) D. Shy (U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, Washington DC, USA) D. Walker (Department of Atmospheric Science, Earth System Science Center, University of Alabama in Huntsville, Huntsville, USA) David Sarria (Department of Physics and Technology, University of Bergen, Norway) G. Heymsfield (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, USA) H. Christian (Department of Atmospheric Science, Earth System Science Center, University of Alabama in Huntsville, Huntsville, USA) I. Adams (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, USA) I. Bjørg Engeland (Department of Physics and Technology, University of Bergen, Norway) J. Montanya (Polytechnic University of Catalonia, Spain) J. Søndergaard (Department of Physics and Technology, University of Bergen, Norway) J.A. Lopez (Polytechnic University of Catalonia, Spain) J.A. Roncancio (Polytechnic University of Catalonia, Spain) J.E. Grove (U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, Washington DC, USA) K. Ullaland (Department of Physics and Technology, University of Bergen, Norway) M. Cohen (Georgia Institute of Technology, USA) M. Fullekrug (University of Bath, UK) M. Pazos (Instituto de Ciencias de la Atmosfera y Cambio Climatico, UNAM, Mexico) M. Quick (NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, USA) M. Stanley (New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, USA) M. Urbani (Polytechnic University of Catalonia, Spain) Martino Marisaldi (Department of Physics and Technology, University of Bergen, Norway) N. Lehtinen (Department of Physics and Technology, University of Bergen, Norway) Nikolai Østgaard (Department of Physics and Technology, University of Bergen, Norway) O. van der Velde (Polytechnic University of Catalonia, Spain) P. Bitzer (Department of Atmospheric Science, Earth System Science Center, University of Alabama in Huntsville, Huntsville, USA) P. Krehbiel (New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, USA) R. Blakeslee (NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, USA) R. Kroodsma (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, USA) S. Cummer (Duke University, USA) S. Yang (Department of Physics and Technology, University of Bergen, Norway) T. Lang (NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, USA) Y. Pu (Duke University, USA)

Presentation materials

There are no materials yet.
Powered by Indico v3.3.3