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NASA’s Fermi Catches Gamma-Ray Flashes from Tropical Storms

Press/Media

Description

About a thousand times a day, thunderstorms fire off fleeting bursts of some of the highest-energy light naturally found on Earth. These events, called terrestrial gamma-ray flashes (TGFs), last less than a millisecond and produce gamma rays with tens of millions of times the energy of visible light. Since its launch in 2008, NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has recorded more than 4,000 TGFs, which scientists are studying to better understand how the phenomenon relates to lightning activity, storm strength and the life cycle of storms.

Now, for the first time, a team of NASA scientists has analyzed dozens of TGFs launched by the largest and strongest weather systems on the planet: tropical storms, hurricanes and typhoons. A paper describing the research was published March 16 in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres.

Subject

TGFs, Hurricanes, Fermi-GBM

Period24 Apr 2017

Media contributions

1

Media contributions

  • TitleNASA’s Fermi Catches Gamma-Ray Flashes from Tropical Storms
    Degree of recognitionInternational
    Media name/outletNASA
    Media typeWeb
    Date24/04/17
    DescriptionAbout a thousand times a day, thunderstorms fire off fleeting bursts of some of the highest-energy light naturally found on Earth. These events, called terrestrial gamma-ray flashes (TGFs), last less than a millisecond and produce gamma rays with tens of millions of times the energy of visible light. Since its launch in 2008, NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has recorded more than 4,000 TGFs, which scientists are studying to better understand how the phenomenon relates to lightning activity, storm strength and the life cycle of storms.

    Now, for the first time, a team of NASA scientists has analyzed dozens of TGFs launched by the largest and strongest weather systems on the planet: tropical storms, hurricanes and typhoons. A paper describing the research was published March 16 in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres.
    URLhttps://www.nasa.gov/science-research/nasas-fermi-catches-gamma-ray-flashes-from-tropical-storms/
    PersonsOliver Roberts
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