1. Troy J. Gonzalez
Pine Crest School

2. Background- Cosmic Ray
Showers
 Pieces of matter
 Mostly protons, rarely heavier nuclei
 89% hydrogen (protons), 10% helium, 1% heavier elements
 Unknown origins
 Believed to originate outside the solar system
 Extremely high energy, travels at more than 99% of the speed of
light
 Interact frequently with Earth and its atmosphere
 Cosmic rays interact (collide) with nuclei in the air (N2, O2)
 Produces a cascade of secondary subatomic particles
 Cosmic rays themselves are undetectable; instead, their
secondary particles are detected, namely muons

3. Figure 1: Cosmic Ray Interactions
With Earth’s Atmosphere

4. Background- Lightning
 Strong, spontaneous electric discharge
 Cloud to ground
 Ground to cloud
 30 flashes per second
 Lightning frequency all around the world

5. Background- Runaway
Breakdown
 Possible link between lighting & cosmic rays
 Proposed in 1992 by Alex Gurevich
 Cosmic rays facilitate lightning discharges in
thunderstorms
 Cosmic ray interactions  liberation of electrons
 Low energy electrons are accelerated to high speeds (and
high energies) by electric field within thunderclouds
 Electrons interact with nuclei in the air and produce ions
 Shower of particles = chain reaction
 Produces a “string” of ionized air which facilitates the
lightning discharge

6. PURPOSE
The purpose of this study was to
determine the coincidences, if any
exist, between detected lighting
events and cosmic ray events.

7. Materials & Other Methodology
 Lightning detectors
 Records position and time (to the nanosecond) of lightning
strike
 Antenna receives radio waves produced by lightning
 Muon detectors
 Records position and time (to the nanosecond) of muon
“impact”
 Positions and times are archived for collection
 Simultaneous times are the only significant points
 Limit of significance: a few thousand nanoseconds (3000
ns)
 Ideal: a few hundred nanoseconds or fewer

8. Unit ID Time Nanoseconds Latitude Longitude Altitude
82 12/11/2012 15:38 440120450 25.640346 -80.386451 -100.44
Data, Part 1
94
94
82
12/11/2012 15:39
12/14/2012 11:47
12/14/2012 11:47
607292608
722306533
722306895
25.640349 -80.385694
25.640378 -80.385948
25.640391 -80.385639
10.19
12.56
-44.31
94 12/14/2012 11:47 699035859 25.640405 -80.385934 2.7
94 12/17/2012 13:45 695706477 25.64047 -80.38548 -31.93
82 12/17/2012 13:45 62811170 25.640099 -80.385964 25.76 The sections
94 12/17/2012 15:06 972771194 25.640545 -80.386228 -53.34 highlighted
82 12/17/2012 15:06 972771336 25.640411 -80.385334 -46.79 in the same
94 12/19/2012 11:10 178880401 25.64037 -80.385799 -19.9 color each
82 12/19/2012 11:10 178880600 25.640357 -80.385433 -39.72
stand for one
94 1/5/2013 13:12 339893576 25.640431 -80.385244 32.85
82 1/5/2013 13:12 648002021 25.640521 -80.384244 35.88
unique
82 1/10/2013 13:46 267401890 25.641375 -80.382107 102.75 coincidence.
94 1/10/2013 13:46 267401989 25.640434 -80.383277 132.17
7 1/10/2013 13:46 267402753 25.640395 -80.3862 -43.46
94 1/10/2013 13:48 242738657 25.640701 -80.381964 233.42
Altitudes are
7 1/10/2013 13:48 242739730 25.640408 -80.385917 -33.86 not relative
82 1/10/2013 13:48 242740005 25.640387 -80.385483 -92.03 to sea level;
82 1/10/2013 14:17 774170402 25.641464 -80.385757 -9.22 rather,
94 1/10/2013 14:17 774170553 25.639791 -80.386256 -25.9 relative to
94 1/10/2013 15:07 43034505 25.640359 -80.385653 -23.26 the geoid
82 1/10/2013 15:07 438586604 25.641581 -80.387095 -29.25 surface.
94 1/10/2013 15:08 94202652 25.640427 -80.385628 -25.06
That is why
82 1/10/2013 15:08 94203340 25.640995 -80.386328 -188.87
many
94 1/10/2013 15:08 423612958 25.640417 -80.385676 -30.8
82 1/10/2013 15:08 423613905 25.641001 -80.386683 -188.05
altitudes are

9. Figure 2: Comparison Between
Earth As A Spheroid & Geoid
Reference

10. Discussion- Data
 Many coincidences detected; appears to
support Runaway Breakdown
 Over 1 month period, 12 coincidences
 December-January  non-ideal months for lightning
 Work in progress; data preliminary

11. Future Research
 Wait for more lightning; calibrate lightning
detectors
 Northern Hemisphere; spring & summer
 Must reliably trigger within the narrow time window
mentioned previously
 Network of lightning detectors to be used in
conjunction with cosmic ray detectors
 Hyperbolic multilateration

12. References
 http://www.srl.caltech.edu/personnel/dick/cos_encyc.html
 http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/particles/piondec.html
 http://www.mpi-hd.mpg.de/hfm/CosmicRay/Showers.html
 Lightning: Physics & Effects
 Alexander P. Guverich, Kirill P. Zybin (2005) Runaway Breakdown
And The Mysteries Of Lightning
 JI Metcalf (1989) Radar Detection Of Lightning And Electric Fields
 Alice Hong (2000) Dielectric Strength Of Air
http://hypertextbook.com/facts/2000/AliceHong.shtml
 Multiple Contributors (unknown date) What Are Cosmic Rays?
http://www.cosmicray.com/
 http://www.unavco.org/edu_outreach/tutorial/geoidcorr.html