Terrestrial Gamma Ray Bursts Very Common

Rambo Tribble writes It was long thought that gamma ray bursts were the exclusive province of deep space sources. More recently it was found that storms could produce such emissions, but such occurrences were thought rare. Now, data from NASA's Fermi satellite suggest such events happen over a thousand times a day. Per Prof. Joseph Dwyer, from the University of New Hampshire, "These are big, monster bursts of gamma rays, and one would think these must be monster storms producing them. But that's not the case. Even boring-looking, garden-variety, little storms can produce these."

Comments

Re:game tester at home

[Noah Haders]

i test games all day too, but i don't get paid for it. also the games have already been released. i just finished testing far cry 4.

More important: how is this happening?

[erice]

Unfortunately, TFA doesn't suggest the question. Gamma bursts were not expected on Earth because they are created by nuclear interactions. Common for stars and other cosmic objects but not expected in thunderstorms. The source could be electrical, which means they are technically x-rays but at a higher energy then thought possible. Alternatively, there is significant nuclear fusion going on in those storms.

Re:More important: how is this happening?

[Khyber]

Uhhh, have you paid attention to the news lately? Lightning bolts are now known to create anti-matter. To produce a gamma ray is pretty much EXPECTED.

Re:More important: how is this happening?

[jasno]

Wow, you're right!

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pa...

Re:More important: how is this happening?

[advocate_one]

looks like you just killed NASA's server...

Re:More important: how is this happening?

[angel'o'sphere]

Gamma rays are produced by many processes, not only nuclear fusion.

In this case they are very likely produced by simple ionization of gases and extreme acceleration of electrons. So, yes it is electric.

The distinction between X-Rays and gamma rays is not the way how they are produced but the energy level.

It is the same type of interaction like high atmosphere gamma rays that are produced by very high energetic solar wind particles.

Re:More important: how is this happening?

[Chris Mattern]

The source could be electrical, which means they are technically x-rays but at a higher energy then thought possible.

What? The difference between x-rays and gamma rays is not how they're produced but solely their wavelength (or photon energy, which is just another way of stating the same thing). If the wavelength is below 10 picometers (photon energy above 100 keV), it's a gamma ray, regardless of how it's been created.

Re:More important: how is this happening?

[Anonymous Coward]

If the wavelength is below 10 picometers (photon energy above 100 keV), it's a gamma ray, regardless of how it's been created.

This varies from flat out wrong to just horrible simplification depending on what field's literature you're looking at. The distinction is arbitrary in the sense that different fields will draw the line where convenient, which includes depending on how it is detected or in many places still distinguishing gamma rays from x-rays by the creation process, even if there is overlap in energy ranges. Astronomy and plasma physics tend to draw arbitrary lines (and not necessarily right at 10 pm... more often some where between 10 and 500 keV), because they involve a lot of non-nuclear processes generating photons. Nuclear physics will use it to distinguish high energy inner electron transitions from nuclear events, even though there are electron transitions over a keV and nuclear transitions below a keV. It is similar to how a beta particle, Auger electron, delta particle, etc. are all electrons, but names distinguishing the process that created them.

Re:More important: how is this happening?

[radtea]

The distinction between X-Rays and gamma rays is not the way how they are produced but the energy level.

As others have pointed out, this is false. Here's a simple guide to the complex language of electromagnetic radiation:

1) If it was produced by an atomic process it's an x-ray, no matter what the energy.

2) If it was produced by a nuclear process, it's a gamma-ray, no matter what the energy

3) If the source is neither atomic nor nuclear, or unknown, it's field-dependent and circumstance dependent. I tend to think of bremstrahlung as gamma radiation unless I'm talking about x-ray sources for imaging or medical treatment. This is a purely cultural difference, with the terms "x-ray" and "gamma ray" being understood as interchangeable by practitioners, but with one or the other being preferred depending on context. Annihilation radiation is called gamma or x-ray depending on the field as well.

With regard to the EM radiation from storms, there are multiple possible origins. It's pretty easy to create neutrons from high-energy plasmas, as in the Farnsworth Fusor. Subsequent capture of those neutrons on nuclei will produce "true" gamma rays. On the other hand, various purely EM processes could be producing x-rays as well. So the EM radiation from storms could well be a mix of both nuclear and atomic processes. Call 'em gammas or x-rays, and don't make a big deal of it.

Re:The Earth is connected

[TechyImmigrant]

to the rest of the solar system in ways we are just beginning to see.
The electric sun theory explains most of it. Now we are filling in the
"we're not sure why" parts and it is amazingly simple. Physics rule.
Radioactive decay releases energy that has to go somewhere.
Since you can not destroy energy, just transfer it, Storms are conduits to the ground or a catalyst.
The gamma rays go out to be balanced with the force needed to equal the force absorbed electrically
or magnetically (Ion based) by the Earth. Ions and gamma rays Oh my!
A sort of St Elmo's fire? Only with a radioactivity spectrum.
No telling what we might see next with our new eyes.

It's like you paid attention to 20% of your physics classes, then figured you understood 100% of it and don't know when to quit.

Bremsstrahlung effect?

[cachimaster]

Xrays produced by the Bremsstrahlung effect are proportional to the voltage of free-electrons hitting an atom. That is, a 30kV electron would produce X-ray light with a spectrum centered in 30kV.

Rays have millions of volts and should be expected to produce X-rays of mega-electronvolts energy, this is gamma-ray energy levels.

But Bremsstrahlung needs vacuum, so I probably don't know what I'm talking about.

Re:The Earth is connected

[TheTurtlesMoves]

the electric sun theory explains exactly nothing. The electric universe theory explains even less. Your explanation makes less sense than the star trek technospeak.

Re:The Earth is connected

[binarylarry]

Gene Ray, is that you?

Re:health risks?

[Mr D from 63]

I wonder if this could mean people living in an area with lots of storms have a significantly higher risk of cancer.

Higher risk, maybe, but imperceptibly small based on physical evidence. Even these "higher doses" are relatively small, well under the point where real world statistical evidence shows any increase in cancer rates. Fact is, other environmental causes dwarf radiation even at much higher doses when it comes to cancer risk. Now, if you get a hundred times these doses on a regular basis, you may expect to see some observable increases in certain cancers.

Higher altitude exposure to UV is a real risk. Plenty of evidence for that.