Meteorological aspects of gamma-ray glows in winter thunderstorms

Wada, Yuki*; Enoto, Teruaki*; Kubo, Mamoru*; Nakazawa, Kazuhiro*; Shinoda, Taro*; Yonetoku, Daisuke*; Sawano, Tatsuya*; Yuasa, Takayuki*; Ushio, Tomoo*; Sato, Yosuke*; et al.

Geophysical Research Letters, 48(7), 11 Pages, 2021/04

https://doi.org/10.1029/2020GL091910

During three winter seasons from November 2016 to March 2019, 11 gamma-ray glows were detected at a single observation site of our ground-based gamma-ray monitoring network in Kanazawa, Japan. These events are analyzed with observations of an X-band radar network, a ceilometer, a disdrometer, and a weather monitor. All the detected glows were connected to convective high-reflectivity regions of more than 35 dBZ, developed up to an altitude of 2 km. They were also accompanied by heavy precipitation of graupels. Therefore, graupels in the lower layer of thunderclouds that correspond to high-reflectivity regions can form strong electric fields producing gamma-ray glows. Also, these events are compared with a limited sample of nondetection cases, but no significant differences in meteorological conditions were found between detection and nondetection cases in the present study.