ERC Advanced Grant · 2024
ExploriNg Lightning Initiation and Gamma-ray High-energy emission in Thunderstorm ENvironments
Lightning strikes earth 45 times each second, but we still don’t understand exactly what initiates it. The large electric fields in thunderclouds are also responsible for charged particle acceleration, ultimately leading to gamma-ray production. Energetic radiation is an essential component of thundercloud dynamics. Energetic radiation and lightning discharge appear tightly linked, but the nature of this link is yet to be understood. ENLIGHTEN posits a causal relationship between energetic radiation and lightning initiation. Combining novel time-resolved gamma-ray imaging of thunderclouds with simultaneous lightning discharge imaging in the radio band, we aim to establish the causal…
From the public funding record at EU CORDIS. Describes the funded project, not the reviews below.