Related papers: Downward Terrestrial Gamma-ray Flash observed in W…
Terrestrial Gamma-Ray Flashes (TGFs) are very short bursts of high energy photons and electrons originating in Earth's atmosphere. We present here a localization study of TGFs carried out at gamma-ray energies above 20 MeV based on an…
We designed, developed, and deployed a distributed sensor network aiming at observing high-energy ionizing radiation, primarily gamma rays, from winter thunderclouds and lightning in coastal areas of Japan. Starting in 2015, we have…
Thunderstorms produce strong electric fields over regions on the order of kilometer. The corresponding electric potential differences are on the order of 100 MV. Secondary cosmic rays reaching these regions may be significantly accelerated…
An on-ground observation program for high energy atmospheric phenomena in winter thunderstorms along Japan Sea has been performed via measurements of gamma-ray radiation, atmospheric electric field and low-frequency radio band. On February…
Lightning and thundercloud are the most dramatic natural particle accelerators on the Earth. Relativistic electrons accelerated by electric fields therein emit bremsstrahlung gamma rays, which have been detected at ground observations, by…
The multi-messenger observation of gamma-ray burst (GRB)\,170817A from the nearby binary neutron-star merger GW170817 demonstrated that low-energy $\gamma$-ray emission can be observed at relatively large angles from GRB jet axes. If such…
We present three terrestrial gamma ray flashes (TGFs) observed over the Mediterranean basin by the Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscope Imager (RHESSI) satellite. Since the occurrence of these events in the Mediterranean region is…
Some gamma-ray burst (GRB) spectra exhibit high energy tails with the highest photon energy detected at 18 GeV. The spectral slope of the high-energy tails is sufficiently flat in nu F_nu to consider the possibility of their detection at…
Gamma-ray bursts have been detected at photon energies up to tens of GeV. We review some recent developments in the X-ray to GeV photon phenomenology in the light of Swift and Fermi observations, and some of the theoretical models developed…
Soft gamma-ray repeaters (SGR) are a class of high energy transients whose brief emissions are thought to arise from young and highly magnetized neutron stars. The exact cause for these outbursts and the nature of the energy loss remain…
This work presents a unified conceptual and observational framework that reinterprets these radiation bursts as manifestations of the same runaway processes happening at different atmospheric depths (Dual-stage model, DSM). We review recent…
A young and energetic pulsar powers the well-known Crab Nebula. Here we describe two separate gamma-ray (photon energy >100 MeV) flares from this source detected by the Large Area Telescope on board the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. The…
Gamma ray bursts (GRBs) are astronomical phenomena detected at highest energies. The gamma ray photons carry energies on the order of mega-electronovolts and arrive to us from the point-like sources that are uniformly distributed on the…
Global distribution of the Terrestrial Gamma-ray Flashes (TGFs) detected by AGILE and RHESSI for the period from March 2009 to July 2012 has been analysed. A fourth TGF production region has been distinguished over the Pacific. It is…
The High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) Gamma-ray Observatory is an extensive air shower detector operating in central Mexico, which has recently completed its first two years of full operations. If for a burst like GRB 130427A at a…
Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are among the brightest and most energetic events in the universe. The duration and hardness distribution of GRBs has two clusters, now understood to reflect (at least) two different progenitors. Short-hard GRBs…
A theory is proposed to explain with simplicity the basic observed properties of a Gamma Ray Burst (GRB). It employs a well-known result of Schwinger, that static electric fields in excess of a critical value are unstable to pair creation,…
Proceeding from a stormy day of 22 September 2022, when 7 thunderstorm ground enhancements occurred (TGEs, 3 of them very large), we perform an analysis of the most important conditions, on which depend the origination of the large particle…
Ground based extensive air showers arrays can observe GRBs in the 1-1000 GeV energy range using the "single particle" techique. The sensitivity to detect a GRB as a function of the burst parameters and the detector characteristics are…
A gamma-ray burst, named GRB 221009A, occurred on 9 October 2022 and is the brightest ever observed GRB, whose frequency is now estimated as once in 10,000 years. This GRB was reported to be observed from many space missions, VLF receivers,…