https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/201713503002
Circular polarization of radio emission from air showers in thunderstorm conditions
1 KVI-Center for Advanced Radiation Technology, University Groningen, P.O. Box 72, 9700 AB Groningen, The Netherlands
2 Interuniversity Institute for High-Energy, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, 1050 Brussels, Belgium
3 Department of Astrophysics/IMAPP, Radboud University Nijmegen, P.O. Box 9010, 6500 GL Nijmegen, The Netherlands
4 Astrophysical Institute, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, 1050 Brussels, Belgium
5 Center for Mathematics and Computer Science (CWI), PO Box 94079, 1090 GB Amsterdam, The Netherlands
6 Department of Applied Physics, Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e), PO Box 513, 5600 MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands
7 NIKHEF, Science Park Amsterdam, 1098 XG Amsterdam, The Netherlands
8 Netherlands Institute of Radio Astronomy (ASTRON), Postbus 2, 7990 AA Dwingeloo, The Netherlands
9 Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie, P.O. Box 20 24, Bonn, Germany
10 Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California Irvine, Irvine CA 92697-4575, USA
11 Department of Physics and Electrical Engineering, Linnéuniversitetet, 35195 Växjö, Sweden
12 Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University, Princeton NJ 08544, USA
* e-mail: t.n.g.trinh@rug.nl
Published online: 15 March 2017
We present measured radio emission from cosmic-ray-induced air showers under thunderstorm conditions. We observe for these events large differences in intensity, linear polarization and circular polarization from the events measured under fair-weather conditions. This can be explained by the effects of atmospheric electric fields in thunderclouds. Therefore, measuring the intensity and polarization of radio emission from cosmic ray extensive air showers during thunderstorm conditions provides a new tool to probe the atmospheric electric fields present in thunderclouds.
© The Authors, published by EDP Sciences, 2017
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
